Asylum: UK-Rwanda Agreement

Lord Howell of Guildford Excerpts

Monday 22nd January 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

My Lords, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, presided with very great skill over this report on an extremely difficult set of issues, as he has described in the last few minutes.

Before I make an additional comment, I will observe that we are concerned with a small but dangerous and damaging part of a much wider picture. When I say “small”, I have in mind one estimate that suggests that there are about 60 million people in Africa, the Middle East and central Asia who, even now in the present situation, wake up each morning considering migrating, mostly heading for Europe. Indeed, there between 5 million and 6 million migrants already in Turkey—that is just a start.

We have to lay beside that the fact that 90% of the world’s territorial surface has no inhabitants at all. So what I am saying is that there is something badly out of balance with this entire scene and the adjustment of handling migration and refugee problems in the totally changed conditions of the 21st century. Nevertheless, the urgent problem remains for us of how to halt the appalling trade and tragedy of illegal immigrants coming by extremely dangerous means into the United Kingdom.

As the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, made clear, the report is not about the safety of Rwanda Bill, which comes before the House next week—and should, in my view, be agreed and passed as quickly as possible. But the report does include useful advice on signing the subsequent treaty, which is worth taking note of—I hope that the Government will take note—and which will assist in ensuring that the whole process works effectively and serves its various purposes.

Also, I am glad that the report is free of the rather patronising tone one hears in some comments about Rwanda and its judiciary and legal systems, as though they could not possibly have high enough standards. I can understand the Rwandan Government’s exasperation, and that of senior legal figures there, at the implication that their system somehow has to be reinforced, made over and renewed to bring it up to scratch so that it can be called “safe”. Despite a very dark past, Africa has changed radically—particularly Rwanda, which has changed most rapidly of all in the last few decades. We need to keep that in mind when making our judgments. People also forget that Rwanda is not only evolving into a modern state but is a signed-up member of the Commonwealth and its charter, which insists on full respect for the rule of law and human rights. So I hope that the House will find the first Motion useful.

The second Motion also rightly urges that the normal CRaG—Constitutional Reform and Governance Act—processes, for which the parliamentary scrutiny period appears to expire next week on 31 January, should be properly observed by Parliament. Surely that would be wise; I hope that it is not in question. That raises much broader questions, which the noble and learned Lord touched on, about the severe defects in our entire committee system for holding the Executive to account, despite all the excellent and noble work that the clerks undertake. Every other Parliament I know that seeks to run a democracy—I have visited very many, as have many other noble Lords—has a far stronger committee scrutiny power system for treaties and indeed for everything else than we have here. We must face the fact that we are hopelessly behind in the digital age in this area of scrutiny—but I accept that that is a debate for another day.

The last phrase in the second Motion about Parliament having to make a judgment—to which the noble and learned Lord also referred—about whether Rwanda and its legal system are “safe” is the bit that worries me most, and which I realise runs through the whole debate. I have to ask colleagues: what does “safe” mean? It is an entirely subjective concept and always will be. Is our own judicial system safe? I do not know. I am not sure that all our postmasters would agree about the safety of our judicial system now. No amount of elaborate monitoring, training, appeals body advisers and all the rest is going to convince those who do not want to be convinced that Rwanda is safe.

I hope that the first Take Note Motion put forward so eloquently by the noble and learned Lord will be agreed completely and that the second one is seen simply as a useful agenda, since I see the debate about safety never being conclusive except through practice and experience. We will have to wait, put it into place and see how it goes.

My final hope—probably unattainable—is that both major political parties will support this project with the basic unity and balance which is what the public long for from their politicians and media, in combination with an internationally collective all-out attack on the revolting smuggler parasites, thereby saving the lives of many sad and frightened people. This in turn would decisively assist thousands of other genuine asylum seekers and refugees who are fleeing for their lives from terror and oppression and who have arrived here by legal means in receiving the swift and sympathetic treatment that is in line with our nation’s traditional instincts. It will also give us a breathing space to work out together and with all our neighbours and allies how on earth best to cope with the vast coming wave of migration, which no national Government alone can begin to handle—but perhaps that is too much to hope for right now.