Anum Qaisar
Main Page: Anum Qaisar (Scottish National Party - Airdrie and Shotts)Department Debates - View all Anum Qaisar's debates with the Home Office
(3Â years ago)
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Priti Patel
My right hon. Friend is right to raise the issue of vulnerability and our work with France. Just last week, I had dialogue and discussions bilaterally with my French counterpart, the French Interior Minister. There is wholesale recognition in the French system and across the French Government that a widescale crisis is taking place. The numbers that they are seeing in northern France are unprecedented. I know that the Labour party thinks that this is moving responsibility elsewhere, but we have to recognise that the root cause is the upstream routes where people are coming from and the fact that Schengen open borders mean that there are no border controls across the EU member states. A lot of work is taking place with our Government. We are being very strong activists and leaning into border protections not just domestically through our own legislative policies, but in some of the EU countries that have not been doing enough themselves.
Ms Anum Qaisar (Airdrie and Shotts) (SNP)
Facts matter, not sensational, xenophobic rhetoric peddled by this Government. Last month, the Home Secretary made the inaccurate claim that 70% of people who arrive in the UK by small boats are effectively economic migrants—[Interruption.] Well, no, because research from the Refugee Council this month confirms that that statement is inaccurate and instead shows that two thirds of people arriving here on small boats are deemed to be genuine refugees. Will she therefore withdraw her remarks?
Priti Patel
In the interests of accuracy, 70% of people crossing are single men and they are economic migrants.