Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill

Lord Bilimoria Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 2nd June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bilimoria (CB)]

My Lords, immigration is constantly presented as a negative—something to be scared of and to be feared. The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill tries to address these fears, dealing primarily with illegal immigration, which we unanimously want to stop.

After all, 150,000 people on small boats came to the UK between 2018 and 2024, and 99% of them claimed asylum. Small boats have been the predominant recorded entry method since 2020. Some 86% of illegal irregular arrivals are from small boats. The most recent arrivals bring the annual total to almost 15,000, which is up 42% on this time last year and up 95% from 2023. Of course, we know of the more than 1,100 who arrived on Saturday.

The channel crossing crisis has placed an enormous burden on our asylum system. The National Audit Office says that it is going to cost over £15 billion over 10 years. I am a trustee of Policy Exchange, which reported that the annual cost of the small boats crisis was in the region of £3.6 billion. This is costing us; there is no question about it.

The noble Lord, Lord Sahota, spoke about the people smugglers and the traffickers who cause untold misery. Some 138 people have sadly died attempting to cross the channel. Of course, there are other methods of transport, such as container lorries; let us not forget the sad incident of the 39 Vietnamese nationals who died in a lorry in Essex.

There is the organised immigration crime—OIC—business model. Criminal groups are increasingly using sophisticated methods to smuggle migrants across the border with fraudulent documents. They are using social media. It is appalling. Surely the good news is that resetting our relationship with the European Union, particularly on security, will enable us to work closer and prevent these awful criminals.

The noble Lord, Lord Green, pointed out that the net migration figure went from 1 million to 430,000 last year. Let us put this into context: illegal immigration is around 10% of this figure and 90% of the immigration to this country is legal immigration. He then spoke about birth rates. Let us get real; I do not know what the noble Lord is talking about. Our birth rate in this country is 1.44. We need a birth rate of over 2.0 to actually maintain our population at the moment, which is nearly 70 million.

The net migration figure was unusually high in the year ending June 2024, which was driven by two reasons. First, there was the demand for workers in the health and care sector. Secondly, there was the increase in international student numbers. We keep including international students in net migration figures. We should remove them. Would the Minister agree?

As a former president of the CBI and currently as chair of the International Chamber of Commerce in the UK, I know that there are labour shortages in just about every sector of our economy. When it comes to resetting our relationship with the European Union, I am delighted that the Erasmus scheme has come back to give so many opportunities to our young students to be able to travel abroad.

What about the scheme for young people moving for three years between the EU and the UK? Could we have some clarification on that and on the post-graduation work visa, which I worked very hard to institute in this country? It is two years post-graduation for international students and three years for PhD students. There is talk that this will come down to 18 months. This does not make sense. Could the Minister clarify this because the Migration Advisory Committee last year reported that it is working very well as intended?

The international student figure has now reduced from 680,000 to 450,000. The reasons for this are immigration policies, the expense of studying over here and the cost of visas. The value of international students is £42 billion to our economy. Far more important is the soft power that international students bring to this country; 25% of world leaders today have been educated in the United Kingdom.

There are these negative perceptions. I worked very hard on the UK-India free trade agreement, which we have just agreed. It took over three years. Yet there was this whole focus on the national insurance waiver for three years, which goes both ways between the UK and India. This is only fair, and it is to do with workers who come here on the points-based system and mostly the transfer of workers between companies.

The noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, in his excellent speech, said that everyone should have an identity card. Why do we not have an identity card system in this country? India has the Aadhaar cards for over 1 billion people, giving financial inclusion, digital inclusion and security. We have only 70 million people. We have a model; India has offered us that model. We have no exit checks at our borders. Every other country in the world has exit checks at the borders. The noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, spoke about integration. I am all for integration—not assimilation, but integration. He spoke about international students as well.

To conclude, the bad immigration which this Bill is trying to address is bad—full stop. But this country has always had a reputation for fairness and justice, and welcomes genuine refugees and asylum seekers. It is the good immigration that has made Great Britain great. Without the 18% of ethnic minorities in the UK, this country would not still be the sixth largest economy in the world.

I came to this country as a 19 year-old international student from India, as a Tata scholar, a Mahindra scholar and a Sethna scholar. I have had the opportunity to live the British dream. The Indian diaspora in this country is 2 million strong, out of 70 million. It is the largest ethnic-minority community and, I say with pride, the most successful one in this country, reaching the top in every field, from business to academia to politics. So let us not fear immigration; let us celebrate the good immigration that this country has always benefited from and that we should be proud of and grateful for.