Boko Haram

Debate between Baroness Hussein-Ece and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Tuesday 27th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I am not going to comment on operational numbers. We have a military mission there and we are also sending people in on short-term secondments to help with the training. Of course human rights is a part of this, as I mentioned.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that speaking out against the horrendous Boko Haram has nothing to do with religion? We speak out against it, whether we are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu or whatever. It is an aberration that has nothing to do with any religion.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I entirely agree.

Ethnic Minorities: Ministers’ Statements

Debate between Baroness Hussein-Ece and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Monday 3rd February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, the Ministerial Code is entirely clear on the way in which Ministers should behave. I am not aware of many other occasions on which such language has been used. Ministers are extremely careful about references to particular communities, migrants or others. We all understand how very delicate this area is.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that the sort of language we saw in the run-up to 1 January in reference to the latest wave of migrants—Bulgarians and Romanians—was wholly unnecessary and negative, and had an impact on the ground on the perception of people from other countries coming here to work? I mean words like “scroungers”. Does he agree that this sort of language has no place in our society? After all, are we not all part of the big society?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I entirely agree but I think it is a question for the editor of the Daily Mail more than for any Minister in the current Government. There was quite absurd language and, indeed, some entirely untrue stories about extra planes, packed buses and so on that appeared in December, and which have not been denied since by the newspapers that published them. That is very unfortunate in an open, free and democratic society.

Egypt

Debate between Baroness Hussein-Ece and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Monday 10th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

That is a huge question. A free and tolerant Middle East is something that we would all love to have. At present, in Iraq as well as in Syria and a number of other countries, the question of religious minorities, be they Muslim or non-Muslim, is very much in play. We know that the conflict between what one might call moderate Sunnis and Salafi Sunnis is also acute. We do what we can, and I have to say that Muslim leaders in this country also do what they can, to influence the debate, but we recognise that the Middle East is in turmoil. Coming out of this very long period of authoritarian regimes does not make it easy to change habits immediately.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece]

My Lords, in Egypt the use of defamation laws to lock up people on supposed religious grounds has increased, and Article 44 of the constitution bans blasphemy. What actions are Her Majesty’s Government taking in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to ask the Egyptians to look again at these provisions?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, we are working through a number of multilateral and bilateral channels to argue to the Egyptian Government that they need to have a much more open attitude towards minority opinion of all sorts. Article 44, as the noble Baroness rightly says, prohibits blasphemy, but Article 45 advocates freedom of speech. Given the continuing conflict about the role of the judiciary in Egypt, it will take some time for the new Egyptian constitution to be applied in full.

Immigration: Sham Marriages

Debate between Baroness Hussein-Ece and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Thursday 2nd December 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, as the noble Lord will know, these are all very difficult areas. The evidence suggests that these gangs have been switching in the past two to three years from sham marriages with British nationals to sham marriages with eastern European nationals—again, doing their best to exploit loopholes. There is some evidence that they have been using vulnerable young women from eastern Europe. UKBA is doing its utmost in this regard. We are attempting to make—I hesitate to use the phrase—efficiency savings without damaging the effectiveness of UKBA.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece]

My Lords, on 23 November, in response to a question on a Statement, the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Jones, said that the Government were looking at a possible extension of the period that a marriage should subsist for it to be demonstrated not to be a sham. Will my noble friend give an assurance that this will not disadvantage legitimate and freely entered arranged marriages, which come from a culture different from that of the UK?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, again, these are very difficult areas. The figure for people who gain the right to settle in Britain through marriage is of the order of 30,000 to 40,000 per year. The vast majority of these cases are genuine. I declare an interest: my sister is married to an American citizen, who has the right of abode in Britain because he has married her. The countries from which applicants most frequently come, as the noble Baroness will know, are in south Asia. The top five countries from which applicants through marriage come are Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, the United States and Thailand.