Chi Onwurah
Main Page: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)Department Debates - View all Chi Onwurah's debates with the Home Office
(3 years ago)
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Priti Patel
That is a great question, and Frontex in particular has an important role to play. I have travelled across certain EU countries and seen Frontex in operation, but not in France, and not with our near neighbours and on our near borders. The Commission is under pressure right now as it has been asked by many member states to provide broader protection. That is out of our remit and a matter for the Commission, but it is vital that it steps up. The lack of border protection is having an ongoing, knock-on impact on people smugglers and on porous borders, and on people coming to the United Kingdom.
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
The Home Secretary knows that the UK receives fewer asylum seekers—these are not people applying via the resettlement scheme—per head of population than the European average, yet after 11 years in power, she cannot process their applications in a timely manner, subjecting them to further physical and mental distress, or even control our borders, meaning that thousands are making that perilous crossing. Will she stop blaming the French, the European Union, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the weather, the migrants themselves, and take some responsibility? Fix the broken system, because the Nationality and Borders Bill certainly will not do that.
Priti Patel
On the hon. Lady’s ultimate point, the Nationality and Borders Bill is an important piece of legislation to fix the broken asylum system. This is not just about the Conservative party being in power; when the Labour party was in power it did nothing to fix the asylum system. We are tackling this issue. I appreciate that Labour Members will not support the Bill, but at the same time they are supporting a broken system, and end-to-end reform of it is required. Yes, I want to fix the system—[Interruption.] The hon. Lady can shake her head and talk above me, but that is what we are trying to do through the Bill.