Asylum Seekers: Hotels
Debate between Lord Patten and Lord German(1 week, 5 days ago)
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Lord Patten (Con)
My Lords, it has become something of a trope to call the first day of the third week in January—that is today—Blue Monday, when people feel at their lowest and nothing much works. Sometimes people make that accusation of migration policy. When I got to work today, I was cheered, in the office where I am, to see that the people who run the building were making a valiant effort by turning Blue Monday into what they called “Brew Monday”. None the less, I think today is appropriate to debate the horrendous growth in the cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels. This is still a fast-growing practice and it represents just the very tip of the iceberg of migration policy in the UK.
A generation ago, the problem seemed possible to handle. Numbers were much lower, and they were easily divisible into asylum seekers generally fleeing persecution and economic migrants seeking betterment; no more. The escalating numbers all seem to claim to be genuine asylum seekers needing lodging, while the ever-lengthening queue waits to be processed. The situation we are in is a major state failure by all parties, for government, political parties, think-tankers and policymakers are nowhere near a solution to the situation that faces us, despite great efforts, which I recognise, much thinking and huge expenditure. In saying this, I make no partisan attack on the Benches opposite; I assure the noble Lord, Lord Hanson of Flint, of that.
All parties have had a go over the past 40 years, but when good ideas have emerged, such as using more redundant military camps, in the end, both major parties, Labour and Tory alike, have balked in the face of “No migrants in my backyard” protests. We might be a bit better off if we had not collectively balked at that. Of course, there have been all the headline-seeking suggestions about leaving the ECHR. Sure, some of those who make it to our shores might be easier to remove, but to send them back to where? It is a practical issue, and it is unlikely to stop migrants making the attempt in the first place anyway.
So, at the beginning of what I think over the years will come to be called “the long Parliament”, between now and 2029, it is absolutely right that my noble friend Lord Davies of Gower should have introduced this Question for Short Debate. I want to ask the Minister whether HMG now—I cannot quite see it and I am happy to be educated by him, as he has done in the past—have a clear plan, underpinned by verifiable, practical policies, to have at least reversed, no better than that, present trends by Blue Monday 2029.
