Apr. 25 2024
Source Page: Building a New Scotland: Justice in an independent ScotlandFound: cultural rights and the rights of children, women, minority ethnic communities, disabled people, and refugees
Correspondence Apr. 24 2024
Committee: Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee (Department: Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities)Found: be affected by the proposed UK connection test, if exemptions for those arriving via safe and legal resettlement
Apr. 23 2024
Source Page: I. Universal Credit guidance April 2024 [update of previous guidance, deposited Oct 2023, DEP2023-0791]. 204 docs. II. Letter dated 15/04/2023 from Jo Churchill MP to to the Deposited Papers Clerk regarding documents for deposit in the House libraries. Incl. file list at Annex 1. 9p.Found: social housing - citizen supported by the Home Office in a bridging hotel Afghan Citizens Resettlement
Apr. 23 2024
Source Page: I. Universal Credit guidance April 2024 [update of previous guidance, deposited Oct 2023, DEP2023-0791]. 204 docs. II. Letter dated 15/04/2023 from Jo Churchill MP to to the Deposited Papers Clerk regarding documents for deposit in the House libraries. Incl. file list at Annex 1. 9p.Found: Refugees and asylum seekers What is a refugee? What is an asylum seeker?
Apr. 23 2024
Source Page: I. Universal Credit guidance April 2024 [update of previous guidance, deposited Oct 2023, DEP2023-0791]. 204 docs. II. Letter dated 15/04/2023 from Jo Churchill MP to to the Deposited Papers Clerk regarding documents for deposit in the House libraries. Incl. file list at Annex 1. 9p.Found: claimant who are part of the Afghan Relocation Assistance Policy (ARAP scheme) or Afghan Citizens Resettlement
Mentions:
1: Stella Creasy (LAB - Walthamstow) The Afghan citizens resettlement scheme is in tatters and will not accept them, as the Government are - Speech Link
2: Stephen Kinnock (Lab - Aberavon) that there are already safe and legal routes in place in the shape of the ARAP and the Afghan citizens resettlement - Speech Link
3: Tim Loughton (Con - East Worthing and Shoreham) Government have given undertakings, and we have heard further undertakings about the treatment of Afghan refugees - Speech Link
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of allowing irregular migrants to make applications for asylum whilst still residing in (a) France and (b) Belgium.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The UK has a proud record of providing protection for those who need it. However, there is no provision within our Immigration Rules for someone to be allowed to travel to the UK to seek asylum or temporary refuge. Whilst we sympathise with people in many difficult situations around the world, the capacity of the UK is not unlimited, and we could not possibly consider protection claims from the very large numbers of people overseas who might like to come here. Those in need of immediate protection should take the fastest route to safety and claim asylum in the first safe country they reach.
There are several powerful reasons why allowing migrants to make applications for asylum from France and Belgium is not a viable option and could actually lead to adverse consequences.
The responsibility for asylum seekers and refugees lies with the authorities of the country in which they are present in accordance with their international obligations – in this case France and Belgium. EU countries operate the Common European Asylum System; a framework of rules and procedures based on the full and inclusive application of the Refugee Convention. The aim of this system is not just to ensure fair and humane treatment of applicants for international protection, but also to discourage secondary movements of people once they have reached safety, acknowledging the many problems that such movements create. There is therefore no reason why an individual who is residing in France or Belgium and who needs protection should not make their claim in France or Belgium and certainly no reasons why they should make the perilous onward journey to the UK. France and Belgium are both safe countries, so the protection they seek is already available to them.
The UK processing asylum claims in France and Belgium would also have the potential to create more harm, and actually support the smugglers. Dangerous journeys and the work of the despicable smugglers are not just confined to routes across the Channel. Vulnerable people, if they have an incentive to aim for France or Belgium as a means of entering the UK, would be encouraged to make dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean and over land to France and Belgium. It would create a new pull factor, motivating people to again entrust themselves to smugglers. Even where they may avoid the danger of a small boat, we know from heart breaking experience that journeys over land, for example in the back of lorries, can be equally as perilous. We cannot, and must not, do anything which supports the smugglers’ business model.
Our focus is on helping people directly from regions of conflict and instability, and we believe that our resettlement programmes are the best way to provide much needed support. Between 2015 and September 2023, over half a million people were offered safe and legal routes into the UK.
Written Evidence Apr. 17 2024
Inquiry: Prisons in WalesFound: Services on the day of release where no information is known about them due to them advising prison resettlement
Apr. 17 2024
Source Page: Immigration Rules archive: 11 March 2024 to 3 April 2024Found: Convention” means the 1951 United Nations Convention and its 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees
Written Evidence Apr. 17 2024
Committee: Home Affairs Committee (Department: Home Office)Found: The number of baptisms of refugees was: 2014-16 – 0 2017 – 5 (before Mr Firth’s tenure) 2018 –