Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Baroness Butler-Sloss

Committee stage
Tuesday 8th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness May of Maidenhead (Con)]

My Lords, as I rise, I draw your Lordships’ attention to the fact that I both set up and chair the Global Commission on Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking. I wish to move Amendment 47 standing in my name, and in my remarks I would also like to address Amendment 49.

As I have been listening to the debate that has taken place so far, I have to say that I think there is absolute agreement across the Committee that we want to smash the gangs and deal with the criminals who are making money out of other people’s hopes and misery. The Minister has made that very clear, and others speaking from across the Committee have supported that intention.

I also noted the remarks that were made by the noble Lord, Lord German, in moving Amendment 46, in relation to the issue of modern slavery. It is on that issue that I have specifically put down Amendment 47. My concern is that in the attempt to smash the gangs, the Government may inadvertently catch up within the requirements of this Bill those who are acting not in order to make money or simply for themselves but because they have been forced to do so by their traffickers or slave drivers. They are acting under the duress of modern slavery. That is why Amendment 47 would add to Clause 14(4) proposed new paragraph (c) so that one of the reasonable excuses that somebody has for an offence under this clause is that they were acting under the duress of slavery.

If I may just say so to your Lordships, it is very easy in today’s world to think that when we are dealing with aspects of border security and immigration crime, we are thinking only about small boats. That is where the focus is, and there are some elements of this Bill that are specifically related to people coming across the water from France, Belgium or Holland. But, in fact, immigration crime can be committed in a number of different ways. People can be brought across the border in a number of different ways. It may very well be that somebody who is being brought under duress of slavery, who is being trafficked into sexual exploitation, for example, may in effect be committing an immigration crime. I believe that they should have the ability to use the fact that it was under duress of slavery as a reasonable excuse for a defence.

The Minister may say to me that Sections 24 and 25 of the Immigration Act 1971 talk about somebody knowingly having a document or whatever that they know is in breach of immigration law, and I would be interested if he used that as his defence for not specifying—no, the Minister is shaking his head. If we are all agreed that people who have been enslaved should not be caught up by this Bill and be charged with these offences, then I urge the Minister to accept that that needs to be specified on the face of the Bill. He has just, in response to the noble Lord, Lord German, indicated, more or less, that he does not intend to cover those people who are under duress of slavery. I say that it would be far preferable if we made that absolutely clear on the face of this Bill.

Amendment 49 is of a slightly different order because it refers to the holding of items that have been picked up as a result of action under Clause 14. It is just to make sure that where a relevant article is held by the authorities, they ensure that they maintain it and protect it, so that if the individual from whom it has been taken wishes to use that relevant article as part of their case to the national referral mechanism to be considered to be subject to modern slavery, that item is protected.

It is of course normal practice—as I discussed the other day with my noble friend Lord Davies of Gower, who has a police background—that police keep evidence and should protect that evidence, but I think we should be absolutely clear that such articles should be capable of being protected, and should be protected, by the authorities, so that the person who may be under duress of slavery can, if necessary, rely on that item in the case that they provide to the national referral mechanism. This is about the protection of those who are being enslaved. Fifty million people around the world are in slavery of various forms. We want to ensure that we do not aid those who wish to bring people across this border into slavery. I urge the Government to specify the under duress of slavery issue on the face of this Bill. I beg to move the amendment.

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

My Lords, I have put my name to these two amendments, and I declare that I am co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery and vice-chair of the Human Trafficking Foundation. I agree with every word that the noble Baroness, Lady May, said. We need to remember that in these two amendments we are talking about not people traffickers but human traffickers, those who are bringing people from other countries to this country to be enslaved. As the noble Baroness said, many millions of people across the world—men, women and children, including babies—are in that very sad situation.

The idea of this amendment is to recognise that the Modern Slavery Act 2015, brought into Parliament by the noble Baroness, Lady May, does not specifically deal with this. It provides a partial defence under Section 45 for those who are genuine victims of modern slavery, but that does not deal with Clause 14 of the Bill.

Whatever the Minister may have thought, I would ask him to rethink whether in this modern time, when that relatively small number of people coming through either on boats or in lorries or in any other way who are pushed into this country by those who are exploiting them, it is not crucial that it is clear to anyone dealing with them that, if there is a possibility that the person may have been exploited or is coming into this country to be exploited, then the articles that they have need to be looked at in a completely different way. Indeed, under Amendment 49, the articles need specifically to be retained as potentially of value for the first part of the national referral mechanism when the person is going through that rather prolonged process. I strongly support the two amendments in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady May.