Clause 38 - Integration loans
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill
6:15 pm
Edward Miliband (Doncaster North, Labour)
Given the Committee’s wish to get on, could the Minister, following on from the point made by the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon, take the opportunity to say something about the definition of refugee status that is implicit in the clause? In particular, can he comment on the notion that if conditions in the country of origin improve significantly, it is reasonable to expect people to return?
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said that
“the change which has taken place in the country must be fundamental—not a mere transitory change in the facts surrounding the individual refugee’s fear.”
Can the Minister reassure refugees and their representatives that he agrees with that definition, and that countries’ circumstances must be fundamental? Furthermore, can he reassure us that the power to declare that circumstances have changed will be used only in exceptional cases, such as where there has been a temporary upheaval that has caused a mass movement of individuals? That must be an exceptional power, and it must not be envisaged that it will be used generally.
I witnessed a debate to which the Minister responded and in which my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow spoke on 10 October. The Minister said:
“I anticipate that declarations that country conditions have changed will be used sparingly.”—[Official Report, 10 October 2005; Vol. 437, c. 134.]
I should be grateful if he would take this opportunity briefly to expand on that.