Immigration

Barry Gardiner Excerpts

Monday 12th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Immigration (Damian Green)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the matter of immigration.

It is very important that the Government have found time for this debate today. Immigration is a big issue for many millions of people, and this Government, unlike their predecessors, are not going to sweep the debate under the carpet. It is very important, because immigration stands at the centre of what we want this country to be.

On the one hand, we know what benefits immigration brings to this country’s culture, society and economy. Many of our communities have been enriched by the contribution of generations of migrants, and it is absolutely right that in today’s competitive global economy we attract the brightest and the best to this country.

[Barry Gardiner (Brent North) (Lab)]

The Minister talks of attracting the brightest and the best to our country. I had a meeting with him a week or so ago about those brightest and best students who came to this country to study at the TASMAC business school. They have been subject not only to the fraud perpetrated on them by TASMAC, which went into liquidation, but to the Home Office now saying that they came to this country to study on one basis, namely that they would be allowed to work for 20 hours in the afternoon, but that that will no longer be admissible, given that they have to extend their visas because the college has gone bust. Does the Minister think that that is fair; and does he think that it is the way to attract the brightest and best in the future?

[Damian Green]

The hon. Gentleman is aware, because he has indeed had a meeting with me, that we must have rules in place. A huge number of bogus and fraudulent colleges have been closed down, one way or another. Of course, genuine students will have been caught up in that, and we give those genuine students 60 days to find a properly accredited college to move to. I think that two months is a fair time in which to ask people to find a new course. [Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman continues to chunter from a sedentary position, but he has to accept that we must enforce the rules and do so fairly; that is why we have the 60-day period. The alternative is to allow potentially bogus students to come here, or genuine students to come here and be exploited by bogus colleges. The tough action we have taken in this field is not only good for our immigration controls but good for genuine students who want to come here—the brightest and the best, to whom I referred—and who will no longer be exploited and defrauded by the bogus colleges that have existed for far too long.

--- Later in debate ---

[Damian Green]

I am pleased to hear from my hon. Friend, who has a long history of campaigning on the issue on behalf of his constituency, that he has seen signs of the success of that activity in Peterborough. As he knows, the problem to which he refers is concentrated in particular areas, so we are not planning to roll the scheme out nationally. That would not be the best use of resources. We want to concentrate on the two or three areas in which that problem is most acute.

Apart from the successful arrests and prosecutions that I have talked about, we are also working to remove people more quickly to more countries. Between May 2010 and October this year, we completed a total of 68 special charter flights of people being removed who had no right to be here, which resulted in 2,542 removals. We are also tackling the problems of the past as they relate to foreign national prisoners. We are starting the deportation process earlier and removing foreign criminals quicker than ever.

Finally, being selective is also about protecting the most vulnerable. Britain should always be open to those genuinely seeking asylum from persecution. As I have said, the asylum system is demonstrably better than it was a few years ago. Over the past 15 months, we have reduced by a quarter the number of asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their application.

[Barry Gardiner]

I welcome much of what the Minister has said, but there appears to be a glitch in the legacy casework that is being cleared up, and I would be grateful if he addressed it before concluding his remarks. When those who have been locked in the last phase of the legacy casework are brought to the attention of the Home Office, instead of the Home Office addressing some of its failings that have left those people in limbo-land, it is fast-tracking them for deportation. The genuine concerns about how their cases have been dealt with have not been addressed.

[Damian Green]

I do not think I understand what the hon. Gentleman means about them being fast-tracked to deportation. That is a legal process, and among the powers that the Immigration Minister does not have—sadly, I sometimes think—is the power to decide how fast the courts operate.

[Barry Gardiner]

rose—

[Damian Green]

I may have misunderstood the hon. Gentleman, so I give way to him again.

[Barry Gardiner]

Perhaps I did not explain the matter as clearly as I should have done. What is happening is that when a Member of Parliament makes representations on a case that has been outstanding, often for many years, and highlights times when the Home Office has failed to respond appropriately or has lost documents, the people in question are suddenly called in for deportation instead of the MP receiving a response that adequately addresses the past loss of documents or failure on the part of the Home Office. Basically, those people are taken out of the system by being taken out of the country, and the problem is not resolved or tackled.

[Damian Green]

If the hon. Gentleman knows of individual cases in which that is happening, I know he will be assiduous in writing to me on the subject. All I can sensibly say is that, as he says, there was clearly a problem. We have now investigated every one of the cases that was left as part of that terrible legacy, and the vast majority of people involved have received a decision. Somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 cases are still live, either because there has been a long process or, in some cases, because people have reached the end of the road in their legal process, but there are some countries to which it is extremely difficult to remove people, for various reasons that the House will understand. As I said, if he has specific examples, he should let me know and I will take a look at them.

As I said, the asylum process is much better than it used to be, but there is still much that we can do to improve it further. We have specifically initiated an asylum improvement programme aimed at bringing about improvements in the speed, efficiency and quality of decision making. For example, we have introduced an entirely new approach to managing the return of families who have no right to remain in this country. The aim is to encourage and support families to leave voluntarily, with financial and practical assistance, without the need for enforcement action. The number of children entering detention at immigration removal centres and short-term holding facilities fell from 1,119 in 2009 to 436 in 2010 and to just 65 in the first 10 months of 2011. In addition, 14 children entered our pre-departures accommodation in Sussex from its opening in the middle of August to the end of October.

As I hope I have demonstrated to the House, we have taken vigorous and necessary early action to tackle the problem. I know how much passion it raises, and I know how many pressure groups hold strong views on all sides of the argument. We need to have these discussions. If mainstream, moderate politicians do not discuss immigration, we will leave the field clear to the extremists, whether the British National party, the English Defence League or the Islamists, whose only desire is to stir up hatred.

We in this House must lead and shape the immigration debate, and to do so Members of all parties need to have a clear basis for their policies. I will be generous to the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant). I do not expect Labour to have a fully worked out policy yet, and I will refrain from teasing him by quoting the noble Lord Glasman’s view about Labour’s lack of honesty on the issue when it was in government. However, I think it is legitimate to ask one simple question. Does the Labour party think that immigration at current levels is too high? If it cannot or will not answer that question, it cannot play a serious part in this important debate.

As I have said, immigration can be beneficial to Britain, but the unsustainable levels that we have seen over the past decade have been damaging to our economy, our society and our country. That is why the Government are working so hard to get a grip on immigration and provide an immigration system that encourages the right people to come here and keeps out those who would harm us. It is not an easy task, and it will take years rather than months, but it is an absolutely essential task for the future well-being of our society. I can assure the House that the Government are implacably determined to get this right.