Asylum Seekers

Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall and Lord Murray of Blidworth

Tuesday 17th January 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)]

I am sorry to hear that the noble Lord has yet to receive an answer. I will chase it and endeavour to get a response to him as soon as I can.

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords, in his reply to the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, the Minister referred to a judgment which no doubt is available for anyone to read. However, for the benefit of the House, would he be prepared to summarise it? That would give an answer to the noble Lord’s question: what, in particular, allows the Government to discriminate between asylum seekers who arrive by one method and those who arrive by another?

[Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)]

The 1951 convention describes the categories of people who might seek protection from their native country, and, as a result, they are entitled to make a claim for asylum. There is nothing in the text of the convention which limits the receiving nation state’s obligation to consider applications from various classes of nations. That is why we have international agreements; for example, when we were members of the European Union, there was an agreement that other European Union member nations were not able to lodge asylum claims within the United Kingdom.

Net Migration

Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall and Lord Murray of Blidworth

Tuesday 29th November 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for that question. The position is that the types of students who are now availing themselves of British educational opportunities tend to be older, and there are restrictions around the provision of visas for family members. They are restricted to those on a postgraduate course—broadly, not undergraduate courses—and to a course of nine months or longer, if the course of study is with an accredited institution with a track record of compliance with immigration requirements. It appears to be the case that, of the visas issued to students and dependants, about one in five go to dependants and there is no reason in the Government’s view to change that position at this time.

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister has been asked several times a question that, with great respect, he has not answered: why are international students, who bring significant income to our universities and are an ornament to them in many other ways, included in migration statistics, with or without dependants? They distort those statistics, which, frankly, does not serve the Government’s purposes very much. Why are they still part of the immigration statistics? He has not given us an answer to that.

[Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)]

I thank the noble Baroness for the opportunity to clarify the position. The ONS prepares these estimates in its own way, and it is utilising on this occasion a new methodology derived from various sources to estimate, effectively, emigration as well as immigration. The choice is taken to include students, for reasons of transparency, and that seems to me entirely sensible. The number of visas issued to students is available to the Home Office as a figure. That is only a part of the picture when considering the figures that the noble Lord, Lord Green, was referring to in his Question, which are of course the estimates provided by the ONS.