European Agenda on Migration

Part of European Union (Approvals) Bill [Lords] – in the House of Commons at 8:30 pm on 14 December 2015.

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Photo of Peter Grant Peter Grant Scottish National Party, Glenrothes 8:30, 14 December 2015

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for those comments and I fully agree with them. I had wanted to say more in response to what the hon. Member for North East Somerset said, but as he is not here I will not respond to him just now. There may be people taking risks that could be described as foolish, but they are not foolish risks—they are desperate risks. These people are not stupid. Some of them are very highly educated, highly skilled workers in their homeland, and the reason they are risking their lives and, even more remarkably, those of their nearest and dearest, including their own children, is because they have taken a calculated risk that leaving them behind in Syria puts their lives at even greater risk.