My Lords, I draw attention to Motion G and my Amendment 23B in lieu. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Cashman, in particular, who has been a stalwart supporter of me in relation to this clause from the very beginning.

The clause identifies countries currently specified in Schedule 1 which, the evidence and the law show—by virtue of decisions made by UK courts—are not safe places. I explained to the House on Report what the evidence briefly was in relation to each of them. The House and I have not received any refutation of the point that I made—that all these countries are unsafe places for LGBT people. The only answer that is given by the Government and repeated by the Minister is that this will all come out in the wash when a removal notice is served, and a serious harm suspensive claim can be made.

I am afraid that simply is not good enough. The Bill contains a schedule: Schedule 1. Schedule 1 identifies itself as listing places to which persons can be removed. Schedule 1 is related back to the provisions of Clauses 5 and 4, which provide that people can be moved only to those countries in Schedule 1.

If the approach of the Minister were correct, we would not have a schedule at all. But we have a schedule, and it rightly makes a distinction between those countries which are safe—so it says—and those which are not. There is also a division between those which are safe for women and those which are not. I have put forward the amendment for another group of disadvantaged people, who, as the Minister referred to, are long recognised in our own law: LGBT people.

We should not provide a veneer of respectability for these countries; rather, we should point them out as countries which are intolerant and persecutors of a particular community. The answer that the Minister gave—that it does not matter and that it will all come out in the wash—is not good enough when there is a schedule which specifies, as it does, which countries are said to be safe.

The next point in the amendment in lieu is not limited to LGBT people; it concerns countries such as Hungary and Poland, where the EU Parliament has already proposed that proceedings be taken under Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union. As Members of the House will be aware, those proceedings take place where there is a serious risk of infringement of Article 2, which upholds the standards of freedom, dignity and human rights. In those circumstances, we say that those are not countries to which anyone should be sent. That derives support from the fact that elsewhere in the Bill—noble Lords will see the cross-reference—where there is a question of returning people to EU countries, the so-called Section 80AA countries, one of the grounds on which a protection claim is admissible is precisely the one I have mentioned: where there is a proposal to commence proceedings under Article 7 of the TEU. There is absolutely no reason why any difference should be made in relation to removals by people who come to this country as refugees.

Finally, I draw attention to the fact that my amendment in lieu provides that

“no person may be removed to Rwanda until the conclusion of all litigation concerning the lawfulness of arrangements for removal to that country”.

Why is that important? That is important because we do not want to reach a situation with a constitutional debate about whether the approval of Schedule 1, with Rwanda in it, means that the Government can say that, whatever the courts decide, Parliament, having legislative sovereignty under our constitution, has determined that it is a safe place, and so that country must be identified as one which is unsafe, unless and until some litigation is found—if it is ever found—in favour of the Government in relation to Rwanda, and that may never happen. On that basis, I will seek to press my amendment.