My constituents will know that I have long been an advocate for providing asylum seekers with safe and legal routes by which they can enter the UK. At present, many asylum seekers are facing a dangerous journey across the English Channel by small boat, often paying a substantial sum of money to human traffickers to do so.
The Prime Minister set out his pledge to stop these small boats and recently unveiled the Illegal Migration Bill in order to achieve this. As I said in this evening’s debate, there is much to support in this Bill, and I broadly welcome the Government’s pledges to protect lives in the Channel and to break the business model of human traffickers operating in Northern France.
Due to time limits on speeches, I chose to focus my remarks on Clauses 15 to 18 that pertains to unaccompanied migrant children. This is one of a number of concerns that I have with the legislation, but I was glad to put on record the proposed clash between this Bill and pre-existing legislation that deals with responsibility for unaccompanied children.
I expect that as this Bill progresses, we will see the legislation refined as clauses within the Bill are scrutinised further. We are expecting this Bill to return to the House shortly, and I anticipate that there will be scope to work with Ministers and colleagues to ensure that this legislation is watertight.
