Meeting of the Parliament 10 January 2024
I am very sorry, Deputy Presiding Officer. I blame Yvette Cooper rather than myself, but I take the point, which was well made. I apologise to any colleagues who may have found the language in question offensive.
I want to answer Donald Cameron’s question directly, because there was some commentary on the issue over the Christmas period. It is clear that the processing of asylum claims in third countries can and does happen in a number of scenarios. For example, people from Ukraine and Hong Kong can have their cases considered while they are in those countries. We can certainly look at the processing of people’s asylum claims when they are in a safe country. For example, it would be worth looking at whether the asylum claim of an asylum seeker who had arrived in France could be considered while they were there. What the Labour Party is absolutely clear about is that we should not offshore asylum claims to third countries such as Rwanda. We stand against the proposal that the Conservative Government continues to make in that regard.
As I said at the beginning of my speech, I want to focus on the approach that we should take in this Parliament. Over several debates, I have raised my concern that we must do more to ensure that our local councils and communities are able to support asylum seekers when they live in those communities, and to ensure that we are taking the action that we can take against the Conservatives’ Illegal Migration Act 2023 and its immigration policies.
I have raised with the minister a number of times the importance of having a mitigation plan and the work that the Scottish Refugee Council is calling for in that regard. In our most recent exchange, the minister committed to engaging in on-going work with the Scottish Refugee Council. It is clear that commencement of the IMA is definitely upon us in 2024, so I am keen to hear more from the minister or Christina McKelvie in her summing up—