Illegal Migrant Returns Agreements

Baroness Foster of Oxton Excerpts
Tuesday 3rd December 2024

(2 months, 2 weeks ago)

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Baroness Foster of Oxton Portrait Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)
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My Lords, on the over 9,000 people who have been deported—a cross-section of people, as the Minister mentioned—where can we find the detailed information on where they have been deported to? It appears to be quite difficult to find clarification. My brief second point is on Iraq, which the Minister mentioned. Can he confirm to this House whether the death penalty is still in place in Iraq?

Lord Hanson of Flint Portrait Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
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I do not know whether it is fashionable to say this, but I do not know the answer to the question about the death penalty in Iraq. I will certainly find out and write to the noble Baroness accordingly.

Where they have been deported to is a range of countries, which again is too long to list. The noble Baroness will be aware that there are lots of countries where those transfers are taking place, including Zimbabwe, Iraq, Senegal, Gambia and Algeria. If she wishes to know about the 9,400, that is like asking whether one can name the crew of a particular ship. I cannot, but I can find someone who can.

Respect Orders and Anti-social Behaviour

Baroness Foster of Oxton Excerpts
Tuesday 3rd December 2024

(2 months, 2 weeks ago)

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Lord Hanson of Flint Portrait Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
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I agree with my noble friend 100%. It is important that we do not just recruit additional officers. The way that we will deal with the 13,000 neighbourhood police, PCSOs and special constables will be around how we better recruit and engage with those individuals. He makes an extremely valid point that it is important that we recognise experience, try to maintain and keep that experience, and deploy it against the issues that this whole House will want police deployed against: in this case, primarily shop theft, anti-social behaviour and serious organised crime.

Baroness Foster of Oxton Portrait Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)
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My Lords, the Minister mentioned, gently, that this side of the House had been in power for a long time, so I would like to gently remind him that the Mayor of London is Labour and is also the police and crime commissioner. Yet, since October last year, we have witnessed weekly hate protests where anti-Semitism is rife, and supporters of Hamas and terrorism openly call for the annihilation of Jews while waving swastikas on placards. This is not just anti-social behaviour; these are hate crimes which we continue to witness. So I ask the Minister: when are the Government intending to put a stop to them?

Lord Hanson of Flint Portrait Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
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Hate crime is pernicious and I would support the noble Baroness’s contention that hate crime, whether against the Jewish community or people who are legitimately protesting about Palestinian issues—not Hamas, Palestinian issues—is an important potential crime. If crimes are committed and the police wish to pursue those crimes at a local level, they can do so; there are powers in place to make arrests where criminal activity takes place in any form of protest.

The noble Baroness shakes her head, but there are powers now available for the police to arrest people on the basis of hate crime. If the police exercise that power, that is a matter for the police. The noble Baroness would not expect a Minister to undertake those arrests. The police make a judgment; they can make arrests and bring matters to court. Indeed, they have done on a range of crimes, particularly against the Jewish community in the current climate.

Hezbollah: Threat to the United Kingdom

Baroness Foster of Oxton Excerpts
Tuesday 5th November 2024

(3 months, 2 weeks ago)

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Baroness Foster of Oxton Portrait Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)
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My Lords, the threat of terrorism has increased. Long before the recent and welcome assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, we can recall 7/7, the Manchester Arena suicide bomber—the worst atrocity carried out on British soil—and others not that long ago.

Like many here, I have spent my entire life being aware of the consequences of inadequate security, both national and international. As a young woman I was trained to deal with hijackings and bomb threats, and witnessed terror groups such as the PLO, Black September and the IRA causing carnage and death. But the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and the rise in Islamic extremism across Europe and the West, along with the barbaric regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies, are without doubt the most potent threat.

The massacre and slaughter of men, women and children last October in Israel, along with the hostage-taking, were war crimes. Yet the UN and its corrupt agencies turned a blind eye and continue to kowtow to our enemies, such as Russia, North Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Meanwhile, authorities here have permitted weekly protests—screaming mobs spewing hatred, death and destruction of Jews. Anti-Semitism is the order of the day, with Nazi placards held high and anyone daring to challenge often arrested and locked up. These people are sympathisers who are guilty by association and have been allowed to become emboldened by weak leadership. The police and too many spineless politicians stand by, wringing their hands and clutching their pearls like so many others.

Multiculturalism is a myth, while political correctness has stifled debate, particularly if you are on the right, like me. Clerics from mosques across the UK are still calling for jihad, whipping up hatred and brainwashing children. There is concrete evidence and nothing is done, leaving many decent people too scared to speak out. As I said a year ago, staying silent is not an option.

In conclusion, as Lady Thatcher once said:

“The first duty of any Government is to safeguard its people against external aggression. To guarantee the survival of our way of life”.


Without that, there is no future. What steps are this Government taking to strengthen our protection?

Passport e-Gates Network Outage

Baroness Foster of Oxton Excerpts
Monday 13th May 2024

(9 months, 1 week ago)

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Lord Sharpe of Epsom Portrait Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)
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I thank my noble friend for that, and I am delighted that he did not get caught in the disruption last week. As I said in my opening answer to the Front Benches opposite, the Government are doing everything that we can to prepare for the implementation of EES and mitigate its impacts on British travellers, which particularly applies to the juxtaposed border controls. As I mentioned, the director-general of the Police aux Frontières visited Dover, St Pancras and Folkestone last month. I cannot speculate on what physical changes may be required at St Pancras to accommodate the new systems. My noble friend mentioned the ETA system, but I do not think that that is what he meant; I think that he is talking about the EES. I suspect that the ETA system will not have much impact at all at St Pancras. As soon as I am in a position where I can give an update on any physical or infrastructural changes required in and around St Pancras—and, indeed, at the other juxtaposed border controls—I will be very happy to come back and explain them.

Baroness Foster of Oxton Portrait Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)
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My Lords, on the point about outage, the same thing happened 12 months ago. It was not necessarily the same issue of capacity but, nevertheless, it is not good enough. We rely so heavily now on numbers to make sure that these eGates work. We work on reciprocity. Reciprocity means that we welcome people from other countries into the UK, inbound, and they can use eGates—not all of them, but we have agreed with a number of countries that this can take place.

That is not the case now when, as UK passport holders, we go to places where we could formerly use eGates. We are fine in Spain and one or two other countries but, when we travel to other places, which are not off the map, we find that we are not allowed to use eGates. Can I ask my noble friend to look into this? It is a matter of fairness that, if we are willing to welcome other countries’ citizens into our country using eGates, it should be a reciprocal arrangement.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom Portrait Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)
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First, I say again, for the record, that this was not an outage that we have seen before but a unique situation; I say this just to shoot that particular fox. My noble friend makes some very good points. These are matters of high-level diplomacy but I will, of course, look into the reciprocity arrangements that she talks of and see whether there is any more that I can say about that. I suspect that negotiations are ongoing and I imagine that they form part of much bigger discussions.

Protest Measures

Baroness Foster of Oxton Excerpts
Tuesday 13th February 2024

(1 year ago)

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Lord Sharpe of Epsom Portrait Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)
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The noble Lord asks a very good question, because this is about, effectively, reasonable excuse. The Ziegler judgment held that obstructive protests that intentionally cause disruption can be protected by Articles 10 and 11 of the ECHR. That means that those who purposefully disrupt the daily lives of others can escape justice under the guise of protest. Our amendments will mitigate the impact of this judgment and ensure that those who deliberately disrupt others by obstructing the highway cannot rely on protest before the court as a reasonable excuse using the definitions defined under the PCSC Act.

Baroness Foster of Oxton Portrait Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)
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My Lords, most of us have witnessed and been involved in protests, and even though some have been quite violent and very disturbing, what we have seen over the past four months with the pro-Palestinian marches and protests in London has been on a completely different level. The police have had their hands tied behind their backs, not least because they have been unable to identify so many of those involved who have been wearing face coverings, and with huge crowds the police have been unable to see exactly who they are. Notwithstanding that the police have made some arrests and have charged and prosecuted certain individuals, the numbers involved are limited and small. Month on month, people have been allowed to protest, calling for the death and destruction of Jews and Israel, and to show Nazi symbols, with Islamic extremists who have been involved with Hizb ut-Tahrir. Permitting them to carry on like this is not acceptable. I fully support this proceeding to make sure those individuals are dealt with properly.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom Portrait Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)
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My noble friend raises some very good points. She is right that the simple fact of the matter is that recent protests have upped the temperature of protest. However, we have to remain proportionate, and I think this strikes the right balance.

Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Baroness Foster of Oxton Excerpts
Wednesday 29th November 2023

(1 year, 2 months ago)

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Baroness Foster of Oxton Portrait Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)
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My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, and I too asked this question on 15 November in the King’s Speech debate on foreign affairs and defence. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a death cult run by psychopaths who think nothing of the rape, torture and beheading of civilians in Iran should they dare to dissent. It is they who pull the strings of Hamas and other terrorist groups and who share responsibility for the attack on Israel on 7 October. Can my noble friend tell us when the United Kingdom will join the European Union, the United States of America and other countries in proscribing them as such?

Lord Sharpe of Epsom Portrait Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)
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My Lords, I am afraid I have to say to my noble friend, as I have already said a couple of times, that the Government keep the list of proscribed organisations under review. We do not comment on whether a specific organisation is or is not being considered for proscription.

Electronic Passport Control Systems

Baroness Foster of Oxton Excerpts
Wednesday 7th June 2023

(1 year, 8 months ago)

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Lord Murray of Blidworth Portrait Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
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The noble Lord raises a very important point. I will certainly look into that.

Baroness Foster of Oxton Portrait Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)
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My Lords, unfortunately we are going to experience, by all accounts, a summer of discontent which will come from the security staff at airports; notwithstanding that the airlines and airports—the entire industry—suffered terrible hardships throughout Covid, this is pretty bad news. It is therefore not acceptable that we then have a repetition of these technical failures at e-gates. It obviously concerns inbound passengers and some who are on transfer but, in large airports, the backlog causes damage to our reputation among tourists and people travelling into the UK. Will my noble friend please speak to the Home Office and give us some assurance that we can minimise any of these failures in the future?

Lord Murray of Blidworth Portrait Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
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I thank my noble friend for that question. The Home Office is not responsible for security facilities at the airports beyond those provided by Border Force. I reassure her that Border Force takes seriously maintaining the operation of the e-gates during peak periods. As I have said, we have certainly learned lessons from what happened last week.

Counterterrorism: Martyn’s Law

Baroness Foster of Oxton Excerpts
Wednesday 23rd November 2022

(2 years, 2 months ago)

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Baroness Foster of Oxton Portrait Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)
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My Lords, while we wait for this proposed legislation to pass through this House and the other place, can we be assured that one of the main failures that was a contributory factor to the Manchester bombing was the lack of joined-up thinking and joined-up work by the emergency services? Can we at least have the assurance that that is in hand and that all venues, small or large, now have proper contingency planning while we await the legislation?

Lord Sharpe of Epsom Portrait Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)
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My noble friend makes a good point. I am, of course, happy to try to give that assurance from the Dispatch Box but, as we know, all police forces and emergency services remain operationally independent to some extent. The fact is that they have access to the various services I have outlined, through Contest.

Police: Vetting, Misconduct and Misogyny

Baroness Foster of Oxton Excerpts
Wednesday 2nd November 2022

(2 years, 3 months ago)

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Lord Sharpe of Epsom Portrait Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)
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I have no idea what the Prime Minister knew or did not know.

Baroness Foster of Oxton Portrait Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)
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What is the role of the police and crime commissioners in dealing with a matter such as this?

Lord Sharpe of Epsom Portrait Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)
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As my noble friend will be aware, and as we debated extensively earlier this week, police and crime commissioners, along with chief constables, are responsible for setting out individual forces’ ways of dealing with and performing on these matters.

Rwanda Asylum Partnership

Baroness Foster of Oxton Excerpts
Wednesday 19th October 2022

(2 years, 4 months ago)

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Baroness Foster of Oxton Portrait Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)
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My Lords, most of the—

None Portrait Noble Lords
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Foster!

Lord Cunningham of Felling Portrait Lord Cunningham of Felling (Lab)
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She is just reading her question out!

Baroness Foster of Oxton Portrait Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)
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My Lords, most of the Rwanda Cabinet were refugees and understand the difficulties that people face, particularly coming from war-torn countries. Rwanda has moved forward massively from the days when it suffered war and genocide. Does my noble friend agree that we need to kickstart this process for illegal immigrants as soon as possible as we cannot sustain the levels as they stand and be seen to support people traffickers, who continue to make money on the backs of human misery?

Lord Sharpe of Epsom Portrait Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)
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I thank my noble friend for that question and I agree with her. The point of this policy is to break the vile criminal enterprise that operates in the channel. I think most noble Lords would approve of that aim. As to whether Rwanda is safe, which is the essence of my noble friend’s question, I say that it is a fundamentally safe and secure country with respect for the rule of law. She is right to point out that the majority of the Cabinet were refugees, and it is also worth pointing out that Rwanda has one of only two, I think, Parliaments in the world that has a majority of women sitting in it.