Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill [HL]
Debate between Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb and Baroness Butler-SlossFriday 17th January 2025
(2 weeks ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill [HL] 2024-26 View all Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill [HL] 2024-26 Debates Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: HL Bill 13-I Marshalled list for Committee - (15 Jan 2025)
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)
No. The previous Government actually encouraged the small boats. They encouraged people to come by routes that were not safe.
The Green Party supports this Bill. It is time to remove the barriers so that desperate children can be reunited with their families in safety.
Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)
My Lords, I declare that I—along with Fiona Mactaggart, then an MP—wrote a report on children in northern France, Calais and Dunkirk some years ago. I find this whole group of amendments to the Bill extremely sad.
I want to concentrate on a legal issue, which I raise to some extent with the noble Lord, Lord Murray. I was certainly not an immigration lawyer but, as far as I understand the Immigration Rules, civil partners, who come up in Amendment 13, and adopted children, who come up in Amendment 14—both are referred to in Clause 1(5)—are already within the Immigration Rules. Consequently, if the noble Lord and the noble Baroness are right, they are trying to reduce the Immigration Rules, not increase them.