European Council

Lord Empey Excerpts

Tuesday 14th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I think that all noble Lords around the House will join me in paying tribute to our Armed Forces. They do a fantastic job on our behalf around the country. We are committed to ensuring that we continue to spend 2% of GDP on defence to give them the resources that they need.

[Lord Empey (UUP)]

My Lords, could I ask the noble Baroness a question on the migration issues? The guiding rules are those in the Dublin agreement, but that is just not working and has not worked. In fact, a whole industry has been set up by smugglers who are making vast fortunes. While it is welcome that a number of arrests have been made, that is merely a drop in the ocean. Do the Government intend to press our European partners to have a really coherent policy on these matters, because the problem is not going away—it is going to get worse?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

We are working closely with our European partners. Of course, the Royal Navy has vessels in the Mediterranean, saving lives and assisting with the training of the Libyan coast-guard, for instance. We are providing 40 staff to Greece to support admissibility and interviewing of migrants, and sharing expertise to support Italy, and work by our National Crime Agency and Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce, in concert with our European counterparts, has seen us managing to arrest quite a number of individuals involved in smuggling in the past three months alone—and that remains a priority for us.