Clause 11 - Unfounded human rights or asylum claim
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill
9:10 am
Ms Beverley Hughes (Minister of State (Citizenship and Immigration), Home Office; Stretford and Urmston, Labour)
There certainly have been some since, and I will get the number for the hon. Gentleman before we end this debate.
Clause 11 will enable a country or part of a country to be designated, for the purposes of section 94, in respect of a ''description of person'', where the Secretary of State is satisfied that the refugee convention and the ECHR tests that I have outlined apply to the description of person in the country in question. This provision will give us greater flexibility in respect of section 94 powers. We may not consider that the two-part test set out in the section has been met when taking all the population of a given country together, but there might be occasions when it would be useful and appropriate to designate that country with regard to a specified group of persons for whom that test is met.
New subsection (5C), inserted into section 94 by clause 11, details that to which a ''description of person'' may refer. We have listed seven specific examples of attributes or circumstances that we think are most likely to be relevant to this particular power. We have added a final category covering any other attribute or circumstance that the Secretary of State considers appropriate. We will consider that list in debates on later amendments.
Amendment No. 150 requires that, for the Secretary of State to be satisfied that a person is within one of the given descriptions, the person must confirm that, or there must be documentary evidence to that effect. I can understand the general principle that we should proceed on the basis that a person is within a given description only if we have good reason to do so. We have no intention of proceeding on any other basis. That principle is already reflected in the clause,
because it requires the Secretary of State to be satisfied that a person is within a given description—this necessarily imports a requirement of reasonableness on the part of the Secretary of State.
However, I do not think that the limitations imposed by the amendment are appropriate. I understand that the Liberal Democrats are opposed in principle to the mechanism of designating countries as safe—they opposed it in the debates on the 2002 legislation and some of the amendments they have tabled to this clause obviously underline that opposition. In fact, the operation of the non-suspensive appeal mechanism that follows from the certification power in section 94 has been phenomenally successful in reducing unfounded asylum claims from the countries concerned. In respect of the first-wave countries, the accession countries, there was a dramatic reduction in unfounded claims as a result of that measure within the first three months of implementation of the Act.
It is at this point that I would like to raise the sights of the members of this Committee from the rather forensic attention to detail that we saw in the debate on clause 10. I remind them of the other context in which we are operating. While the Opposition clearly have a duty to scrutinise the principle and the practice of the Bill, to make their points and to ensure that the provisions are operationally feasible and logistically possible, they also have an obligation to understand the context in which we are working—the fact that the vast majority of unfounded claims are fuelled by organised crime, and people are exploited by being sold a service; they are told that they can get here and that they claim support under the asylum system as a means of staying here while their claim is assessed. This situation is a huge disadvantage to people who are genuinely fleeing persecution. It undermines public confidence in the asylum system and damages race relations in the community.
I made these points at the start of our debates on the Bill, but I have to remind Members that we are trying to strike a balance. We have had to fight tooth and nail with Opposition Members to put measures on the statute book that are now showing themselves to be effective in striking that balance.