European Council

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Duke of Somerset

Tuesday 14th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I thank my noble friend. My noble friend Lord Price, in response to a Question earlier this week, outlined a number of ways in which we are looking to improve our trade relations with the Commonwealth. It is certainly a focus for us and we want to take advantage of our historic links. Obviously, as my noble friend well knows, our objective is to seek an ambitious and comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU. We are going into the negotiations positive that we can get a good deal for both the UK and the EU, which will work in both our interests.

[The Duke of Somerset (CB)]

My Lords, did the Council address the vile treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in European countries such as Italy, where they are not allowed to cross the border to France, it takes three years to process their applications, during which they are not allowed to work to earn money to survive, and the police deal brutally with those that they detain? These human beings live in squalor, wherever they can, including under bridges or in drains, with little hope for a better future. The EU seems to have no coherent or humanitarian policy, and certainly not one that works on the ground. How is the UK going to help improve this terrible state of affairs when the doctrine is that the first safe country they reach does the processing—the very states that are overstretched to manage it?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

The Prime Minister certainly stressed our commitment to working with our European partners to tackle the Mediterranean migration crisis. Reforms to the Italian asylum process and implementation of the EU-Turkey deal are helping to relieve pressure on EU migrant returns, but of course we are very concerned about the conditions that many of these migrants live in. That is why last month in Valletta we announced a further £30 million in UK aid to assist refugees and migrants across Greece, the Balkans, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Sudan, which will provide immediate life-saving aid to vulnerable migrants, help to train front-line workers responding to the crisis and support voluntary returns and reintegration.