Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill

Part of the debate – in a Public Bill Committee at 9:30 am on 8 January 2004.

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Photo of Beverley Hughes Beverley Hughes Minister of State (Citizenship and Immigration), Home Office, Minister of State (Home Office) (Citizenship, Immigration and Counter-Terrorism) 9:30, 8 January 2004

I have heard the debate and, having taken up with the hon. Member for Woking his extended discussion on matters extraneous to the Bill, I do not intend to repeat my comments.

I welcome all hon. Members to the Committee, and I take the view that every member of the Committee wants to make an important contribution to improve the Bill, if possible. I want the Bill to work. I want the Government's policy to be implemented effectively, so I am more than happy to consider any sensible suggestions of merit, and I am sure that others will attend our deliberations in the same spirit.

As hon. Members have pointed out, this is the third phase of reform and transformation of the asylum system. I would like simply to remind colleagues that that is an important strand of Government policy, which, in the interests of our constituents and asylum seekers, I strongly feel that we cannot duck in any way. It is important to put that strand of policy in the context of wider Government policy. In a way, that is what divides us from the Conservative party: we want to increase migration. We are in favour of legal migration, but we must have a rational system that supports that and does not allow abuse of the asylum system. We also want to encourage resettlement of refugees, but we cannot defend that policy unless our asylum system is above abuse.

Substantial progress has been made. I make that point because it is important to base our discussions on fact. The hon. Member for Woking said that he did not think that anything in the Bill was relevant to some of the necessary continued improvements in the system. That is wrong, and we will see what his position is on

those clauses that, for example, have direct relevance to our ability to remove people. Shortly, we will get to clause 2, which requires that people do not destroy documents, without which we cannot return them very easily.