Clause 57
Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [Lords]
5:00 pm
Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendment 1, in clause 57, page 45, line 22, after ‘Kingdom’, insert
‘or the responsibility of the UK Government or UK agencies abroad’.
It is a pleasure to speak in favour of this straightforward but powerful, I hope, amendment, which touches on the welfare of children who are in contact with UKBA. We do not always have a particularly positive record that we can be proud of on children, as with the detention of families in detention centres. This small amendment would perhaps redress that balance and ensure that we gave greater priority to children and provided for the welfare of children in and outside the UK. I wrote down something that the Minister said earlier today. He said—this is a direct quote—that we are “effectively exporting our borders.” Clearly, that is what we are doing at entry clearance posts and juxtaposed controls, or perhaps in the course of an escorted removal. If we are exporting our borders with the acceptance and acknowledgment of other countries, can we not also ensure that the standards we apply to the welfare of children within the UK who are being looked after by UKBA, also apply to children from outside the UK who are in contact with UKBA?
This is a straightforward proposal, which is welcomed by the Refugee Council and others, and it is hard to see why the Government would not want to support it. Is there any reason for UKBA to have a different attitude to the welfare of a child who is being escorted outside the UK, from the approach to welfare issues that it would take for a child within the UK? It is straightforward.
In an earlier sitting we had an interesting debate about whether the Independent Police Complaints Commission should have any powers abroad. We asked whether it should be possible for someone to make a complaint about something that happened abroad, and for the IPCC to pick up and deal with it in this country. Currently it cannot, and I suppose a certain logic says that if suitable policing or reporting arrangements apply in another country, we should allow that country to deal with any complaints.
The Minister’s own words are that we are “exporting our borders”. We have a relationship with many countries which accept that officials of the United Kingdom are able to process things abroad. Of all the people that UKBA comes into contact with, we should be most careful about the welfare of children. It is clear that the very high standards—broadly speaking—that we have here, regrettably do not apply in a number of other countries. Therefore, we cannot assume that the local safeguarding children board, or whatever structures another country has in place to look after children, will be able to deal appropriately with the welfare of children, as that is simply not the case. In many countries there will be no safety net or local authority able to take on those responsibilities.
I hope the Minister will accept that this is a valid and well-meaning amendment about promoting the welfare of children—something that the Government recognise as a responsibility of UKBA within the UK. Surely, it is just a small extension to ensure that that responsibility also applies outside the UK. I hope the Minister will respond positively.