Afghanistan Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office
Thursday 30th October 2014

(10 years, 1 month ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Wallace of Saltaire Portrait Lord Wallace of Saltaire
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My Lords, it may well be the case that we need a proper inquiry, although I am not sure that we need one of the length of the Chilcot inquiry.

Earl of Listowel Portrait The Earl of Listowel (CB)
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My Lords, I draw the Minister’s attention to the report from the Children’s Commissioner for England, What’s Going to Happen Tomorrow?”—Unaccompanied Children Refused Asylum, and its recommendation that we should see the boys and girls who arrive unaccompanied in this country from Afghanistan as a potential asset, who will speak English and can be helped to speak their home language, who can receive a good education from us, for instance in engineering, and who can return to Afghanistan to lead in the rebuilding of that country.

Lord Wallace of Saltaire Portrait Lord Wallace of Saltaire
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My Lords, that is a very complicated question. We are conscious of the extent to which people smuggling and human trafficking are associated with asylum seeking. It is not at all an easy subject.