Meeting of the Parliament 17 June 2014
I am pleased to take part in today’s debate, and I want to say at the outset that I am proud of the UK’s long and distinguished record of offering asylum and providing a place of safety to those who are genuinely fleeing persecution across the globe. We recognise that many of those who come to Britain seeking asylum have suffered terrifying experiences and have made a huge effort to reach our borders, and we should, as the minister has said, treat those people as all modern liberal democracies treat them, with compassion, dignity and respect. There is no argument about that, and I think that most people believe that individual and collective freedom within the rule of law is the basis of our democracy.
The key to dealing with asylum seekers who arrive in this country is having a system of assessment that is efficient, robust and transparent, processes cases as quickly as possible and, above all, is fair. That is fundamental so that we can then offer the appropriate support to genuine asylum seekers and refugees. We need to recognise that some of the people who come to the country seeking asylum may not be genuine but want to come here for other reasons including economic ones. In the interests of the genuine asylum seekers, therefore, those people must be removed from the country as smoothly as possible, and we support the UK Government in taking all the necessary steps to remove those who have no valid grounds to stay here.
The UK coalition Government inherited an asylum system that many described as chaotic and dysfunctional with a massive backlog of cases, but it is making steady progress in putting that right. The UK takes a positive role in working with fellow European Union member states to ensure that asylum flows are properly managed and that those who are in genuine need of protection are given it without undue delay, while those who do not need protection are swiftly refused asylum and returned to their own countries.
The detention of children of asylum seekers has been debated in this Parliament before. I spoke in a debate on the subject in 2009. I am delighted that the UK coalition has made real progress in that area as it has sought to ensure that the welfare of children is promoted. It ended the detention of children at Dungavel as soon as it was elected in 2010. Home Office policy is clear that family detention is used only as a last resort in the removal of failed asylum seekers from the UK after all voluntary returns options have failed, and an independent family returns panel is consulted prior to every enforced return.