Clause 57
Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [Lords]
5:30 pm
Damian Green (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Ashford, Conservative)
I want to put down some caveats. I sympathise with the motives behind the amendment, but I wonder about the practicalities. Perhaps the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington or the Minister will pick up on some of these points. The Minister will be aware that in this country, local authorities are essentially responsible for the welfare of children who come through the immigration system. In some cases, many of those local authorities would prefer that responsibility to be taken by UKBA, as there would be funding implications to that. I wonder about the practicalities of assigning that duty of care to the UK Government in a general sense, or to UK agencies abroad. What sort of agencies are we talking about? What criteria would have to be met for the child to become the responsibility of the UK, as opposed to the responsibility of an agency in the country in which our agency is based? In principle, if a child is in his or her own country, surely the responsibility for their care must lie in that country’s jurisdiction rather than in this country.