Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with (a) the Secretary of State for Education and (b) the Chief Inspector of Ofsted about implementing an inspection framework for hotels used by the Home Office to house unaccompanied asylum seeking children; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The role of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) (until 2012, the Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency) was established by the UK Borders Act 2007. Sections 48–56 of the UK Borders Act 2007 (as amended) provide the legislative framework for the inspection of the efficiency and effectiveness of the performance of functions relating to immigration, asylum, nationality and customs by the Home Secretary and by any person exercising such functions on her behalf.
In October 2022, the ICIBI published a report into his inspection between March – May 2022 on the use of hotels for housing unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). The report can be found on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/an-inspection-of-the-use-of-hotels-for-housing-unaccompanied-asylum-seeking-children-uasc-march-may-2022
The ICIBI was assisted in the inspection by Ofsted, acting in an advisory capacity. The ICIBI’s inspection found that ‘unanimously’ the young people accommodated at the interim hotels reported feeling ‘happy and safe’.
We are taking a new power in the Illegal Migration Bill to provide or arrange for the provision of accommodation for unaccompanied children. Our policy intention is to ensure that whilst time in this accommodation is expected to be short, we will be seeking to meet standards which are appropriate for the accommodation so that children are sufficiently supported and safeguarded. We are working closely with the Department for Education and relevant stakeholders on the appropriate standards which should apply. With regards to inspection, we expect to be transparent in allowing appropriate scrutiny of our accommodation linked to any agreed appropriate standards.
Asked by: Laura Farris (Conservative - Newbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to deport foreign national offenders.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We are committed to protecting the public by removing foreign criminals and will do all we can to ensure that they cannot frustrate the removal process. There were several measures in our Nationality and Borders Act and further ones in the Illegal Migration Bill.
We removed more than 13,000 foreign national offenders between January 2019 and September 2022.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the number of illegal migrants in prisons.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Foreign national offenders (FNOs) should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them and more than 13,000 have been removed between January 2019 and December 2022.
We are doing all we can to ensure that FNOs cannot frustrate their removal process through new provisions introduced by the Nationality and Borders Act and the Illegal Migration Bill. The Act makes it easier and quicker to remove FNOs and those with no right to be in the UK. It extends the period an FNO can be removed from prison under the early removal scheme (ERS) from a maximum of 9 months to 12 months, providing the minimum requisite period has been served.
The UK and Albania signed a Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Albania in July 2021 which commits that Albanian nationals in prisons in England and Wales serving sentences of 4 years or more will be sent back to serve the remainder of their sentence in Albanian prisons.
In May 2023, the UK and Albanian governments agreed a ground-breaking arrangement which builds on this agreement that will see hundreds of Albanian prisoners returned to their home country in exchange for UK support to help modernise the Albanian prison system.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether people who make a protection or human rights claim for asylum and who meet the four conditions set out in clause 2 of the Illegal Migration Bill would undergo an asylum screening interview.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
In respect of screening interviews for those in scope of clause 2 of the Illegal Migration Bill, the processes for implementing the measures will be set out in due course.
Section 17 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 provided that where an asylum claim is declared inadmissible under sections 80A or 80B of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, that individual may be supported under section 4(2) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
Clause 9 of the Illegal Migration Bill provides that where an asylum claim is declared inadmissible under clause 4 of the Bill, that individual may be supported under section 4(2) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
Support under section 4(2) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 is available where an individual appears to be destitute and satisfies one or more conditions in regulation 3(2) Immigration and Asylum (Provision of Accommodation to Failed Asylum-Seekers) Regulations 2005.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she intends to amend the Immigration and Asylum (Provision of Accommodation to Failed Asylum Seekers) Regulations 2005 to ensure people whose asylum claims are declared inadmissible are eligible for support under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
In respect of screening interviews for those in scope of clause 2 of the Illegal Migration Bill, the processes for implementing the measures will be set out in due course.
Section 17 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 provided that where an asylum claim is declared inadmissible under sections 80A or 80B of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, that individual may be supported under section 4(2) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
Clause 9 of the Illegal Migration Bill provides that where an asylum claim is declared inadmissible under clause 4 of the Bill, that individual may be supported under section 4(2) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
Support under section 4(2) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 is available where an individual appears to be destitute and satisfies one or more conditions in regulation 3(2) Immigration and Asylum (Provision of Accommodation to Failed Asylum-Seekers) Regulations 2005.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to offer safe and legal routes for asylum seekers coming from countries without an active resettlement scheme.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Between 2015 and December 2022, just under half a million people were offered safe and legal routes into the UK– including those from Hong Kong, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine as well as family members of refugees.
This includes the granting of approximate 45,000 family reunion visas to the family members of refugees.
This also includes over 28,200 refugees resettled through the government’s refugee resettlement schemes. The UK is one of the largest recipients of UNHCR referred refugees globally, second only to Sweden in Europe since 2015.
The UK continues to welcome refugees and people in need through existing resettlement schemes which include the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS), Community Sponsorship, the Mandate Resettlement Scheme and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS).
Further information on existing safe and legal routes is available below:
Asked by: Lord Strasburger (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the legal methods for refugees who are citizens of Somalia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Eritrea, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar or the Democratic Republic of the Congo to apply for asylum in the UK when they are (1) living in the country of their citizenship, (2) living in a safe third country, or (3) living in an unsafe third country.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Whilst we sympathise with people in many difficult situations around the world, we are not bound to consider asylum claims from the very large numbers of people overseas who might like to come here. Asylum is for people in danger in their home country. Those who need international protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach – that is the fastest route to safety.
Between 2015 and December 2022, just under half a million people were offered safe and legal routes into the UK– including those from Hong Kong, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine as well as family members of refugees.
This includes over 28,200 refugees resettled through the government’s refugee resettlement schemes. Our family reunion policy has also reunited many refugees with their family members; we have issued over 44,659 visas under our refugee family reunion Rules since 2015. The UK is one of the largest recipients of UNHCR referred refugees globally, second only to Sweden in Europe since 2015.
The UK continues to welcome refugees and people in need through existing resettlement schemes which include the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS), Community Sponsorship, the Mandate Resettlement Scheme and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS).
Further information on existing safe and legal routes is available below:
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March 2023 to Question 160288 on Asylum, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies of trends in the number of people claiming asylum after arriving on land-based transport.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
On 7 March 2023 the Government introduced the new Illegal Migration Bill in Parliament. The new legislation will build on and strengthen measures in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 to tackle illegal migration. The purpose of the legislation is to deter people from making dangerous and unnecessary journeys to the UK and break the model of criminals exploiting people by facilitating this route.
Anyone who enters or arrives in the UK illegally having passed through a safe country, including those who arrive clandestinely through land-based transport, will be subject to the duty.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, whether she has plans to (a) revoke, (b) replace or (c) retain the Refugee or Person in Need of International Protection (Qualification) Regulations.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Refugee or Persons in Need of International Protection Regulations 2006 were revoked by Section 30 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022. Many of the key concepts of the Refugee Convention are now defined in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, ensuring Home Office decision-makers and the courts alike have the clarity they require to consistently apply them in the UK asylum system.
Asked by: Jeremy Corbyn (Independent - Islington North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in the application of the new asylum assessment rules under the Nationality and Borders Act 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
This Government is committed to advancing the rights of individuals who are LGBT. The welfare and dignity of all claimants, including those who are LGBT, remains central to our decision-making processes.
One of the key objectives of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 is to increase the fairness and efficacy of our asylum system so that we can better protect and support those in genuine need of asylum. In September 2021, we published an Equality Impact Assessment for the policies being taken forward through the then Bill which included an assessment on potential impacts on people who may face persecution because of the protected characteristics of sex, sexual orientation and gender reassignment.