Migration

Valerie Vaz Excerpts

Wednesday 16th September 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I am always willing to consider suggestions about possible budgets to deal with these issues, and my hon. Friend is absolutely right about the gangs smuggling in refugees and illegal economic migrants. Of course, the business of some people smugglers is taking money from people and putting them on a boat that they know will probably sink in the Mediterranean, while others are human traffickers who want not just to put somebody on the journey but to ensure they are met when they arrive and are taken into some vile form of slavery. We constantly look at our effort on this, and I am pleased we have now confirmed in his place the independent anti-slavery commissioner, Kevin Hyland, who has been working with countries—in Africa, for example—looking at this terrible trade of human trafficking.

[Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)]

Rather than raid the DFID budget, could we consider using the seized Syrian assets, both in the region and for cash-strapped councils?

[Mrs May]

The Government take the view that the Syrian assets are the assets of the people of Syria and that they should decide how they are used. I recognise that the hon. Lady is suggesting that we use them on behalf of the people of Syria, but it is not necessarily appropriate to take money from those assets, which will be needed in the future when Syria has to be rebuilt.