Asylum: Children

(asked on 22nd February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she will exclude children from transfer to her proposed offshore asylum processing centres.


Answered by
Tom Pursglove Portrait
Tom Pursglove
Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
This question was answered on 2nd March 2022

The Government has made our position clear on this during committee and report stage for the Nationality and Borders Bill. To be definitive about exemptions from proposed offshore asylum processing at this stage would not only hamper its potential to be effective but also incentivise people smugglers to target the most vulnerable. This policy, alongside a suite of other critical measures, is designed to deter individuals from making dangerous and unnecessary journeys from safe countries, removing demand for organised criminal gangs operating small boats routes and avoid further tragedies in the English Channel.

Every removal will be in line with our domestic and international obligations. People in scope for removal will be able to rely on their rights under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights so as not to be transferred to a country where they would genuinely be at risk of inhuman and degrading treatment.

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