Clause 2 - Entering United Kingdom without passport

Part of Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 5:00 pm 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) 5:00, 8 January 2004

I challenge the hon. Member to tell me what he thinks is in the back of my mind, and I should like to put him straight on the point that he has just made, by referring to a point that I made earlier.

One of the consequences of being able to change people's behaviour and ensure that they do not destroy their documents—as well as breaking the power of facilitators—is that we will be more able to determine where somebody has come from, the route they have travelled, and their identity and nationality. That is crucial in being able to remove people. There are many people whom we want to remove. We are talking very actively with a number of countries that will not accept their people back unless we can establish nationality. Some countries, China in particular, are not happy with the nationality alone, and want to know the identity of the person and where they come from in the country. We have no chance whatever of removing people to such states unless we can identify them. Attaching people securely to the document on which they left the country from which they travelled, and with which they arrived in this country, is an essential part of that process.

The hon. and learned Gentleman should get under the skin of the system a bit more and understand such factors before criticising what the Government are doing. We cannot simply leave people on the tarmac of an airport in another country and expect the authorities there to accept them. We would not accept

people in those circumstances, and other countries are in exactly the same position, so establishing nationality and identity is crucial.

Keeping people attached to the documents with which they come in is a crucial part of the process. It is central to increasing the number of people returned. Despite those difficulties, we are returning more and more people than ever before, and more than the Conservative Government ever achieved. We still need to do better, however, and this measure is a crucial piece of the armoury for trying to do better on removals as well as on tackling facilitators and agents.

With those comments, I hope that the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome will withdraw the amendment.