argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Closure of Lloyds bank branch in Woolston — House of Commons, 2018-02-06
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Royston Matthew Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): I did not think that I would be the first to present a petition about a bank closure, but I have no doubt that I will not be the last. Before I get to the text of the petition, I want to say that I am disappointed with the chief operating officer of Lloyds Bank Group, Juan Colombás. I wrote to him twice on my constituents’ behalf, but I did not even receive the courtesy of a reply. The petition is about the closure of the last bank branch in a district of my constituency The petition states: The Petition of residents of Southampton Itchen, Declares that the residents of Woolston object to the closure of Lloyds Bank which will result in there being no banks left in Woolston The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to encourage Lloyds Bank, a bank that was bailed out by the taxpayer during the financial crisis, to reconsider the decision and keep the Woolston branch open And the petitioners remain, etc [P002110]
Autism: Educational Outcomes — House of Commons, 2018-02-06
Topic: Mixed Topics
Maria Colette Caulfield (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right. These children have not just a right, but a legal right. As the inquiry heard, the most frustrating thing is that existing legislation should be providing for such care in the education system. We have not only the Children and Families Act 2014, but the Autism Act 2009, which my right hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham (Dame Cheryl Gillan) introduced. The 2009 Act, which is the only disability-specific piece of legislation that we have in England, sets out how autistic adults should be supported The problem is therefore not that the legislation is not in place, but that it is not being upheld. As the 10-year anniversary of the Autism Act approaches, we need a national autism strategy to help children and young people, to ensure that the current laws are upheld and to make sure that all autistic children receive the help to which they are legally entitled. Without that, we will continue to hear these desperate stories of parents and their children who are not getting the support that they need.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on both his Bill and his powerful speech. Does he agree that the key word here is "refugee"? Everybody forgets what and who a refugee is; this is somebody who is fleeing a place they love—their home. They do not want to leave it, but circumstances, that we cannot even begin to imagine, mean they literally grasp the first things that come to hand and flee their home looking for a place of refuge.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Mixed Topics
Robert James MacGillivray Neill (Conservative, Centre-right): There is compelling evidence that diasporas enrich all parts of countries, and indeed Chambers. Probably every Member of this House has had the good fortune to go to a higher education institution, including some very distinguished ones, and every one of those, in every part of the UK, has at some point or other been enriched by academics who arrived in this country as refugees, whether fleeing the Nazis, communism or other regimes. We should remember the contribution that they have made, from which all of us have benefited, directly or indirectly.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
Peter James Bottomley (Conservative, Centre-right): First, let me say that I enjoy a sail to Stornoway. May I also say that this debate comes 46 years after my wife and I took a refugee family into our house? This past week our family and theirs had a lovely get together. What I have not yet heard from the hon. Gentleman, or from the good samaritan organisations, is the number of people who would be eligible under the Bill who are not already eligible.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Other
Nigel Paul Huddleston (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman is making many valid points. Like everybody in this House, I have been lobbied on this Bill by constituents—both for and against. It is important that we keep the right tone here; accusing people of an "empathy bypass" because they have a different understanding or different belief about the best way of helping people is probably something we can avoid in this debate. If we do that, we will have a great degree of support for the end goals.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
Rebecca Faye Clark (Pow) (Conservative, Centre-right): I might be a long-lost relative from Somerset, connected somehow, Mr Speaker Is it not right that the Lord Chancellor is undertaking a review of legal aid reforms that will include legal aid for immigration cases? The Government are already taking that on board and these matters could well be included in that review.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
Jeremy Mark Quin (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech. Will he reiterate the point about the refugees whom we are seeking to support? This country has a powerful record of supporting refugees in situ in the region, where they are most vulnerable. It is also the most vulnerable of those whom we are bringing to safety on these shores. Will he address that point?
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
David John Warburton (Conservative, Centre-right): Absolutely. My hon. Friend reads my mind; he has obviously been looking ahead at what I am about to say Under current rules, partners who are coming here must rightly show that their relationship predates their exile, that it is ongoing, and that both parties have an intent to continue their relationship here. Children must show that they are related, under 18 years old, unmarried and not living an independent life. Family reunion visas are exempt from some of the usual criteria. There is no need to demonstrate adequate finance to support dependants. Dependants do not have to demonstrate any proficiency in English, and there is no processing charge or immigration health surcharge When it comes to other family members—again, quite rightly—exceptions and additional compassionate circumstances can be taken into account. These kinds of exceptions could apply, for example, to help a dependent child over 18 or an unaccompanied child with a relative in the UK As the House will know, family reunion can also be enacted through other refugee resettlement schemes. The Mandate and the Gateway schemes offer routes for refugees living overseas to be settled in the UK where this is in their best interests. Both those schemes recognise family ties as part of this calculation. Family links are also one of the grounds for eligibility under the Syrian vulnerable persons resettlement scheme. The children at risk scheme is also helping to resettle up to 3,000 children and their families from the middle east and the north African region over the course of this Parliament The key part of looking closely at this area must be to focus on how best we target our responses and our support, as my hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (Jeremy Quin) pointed out. If we change policy here in the UK—if we signal and signpost ourselves as a more open door—how will that influence behaviour and therefore lives? Of course, as we have heard, those facing civil war or persecution have little choice about fleeing their homeland—that is pretty clear—but what follows that? How best can we step in to support them?
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Mixed Topics
David John Warburton (Conservative, Centre-right): That is a very good point. I appreciate the hon. Lady’s intervention. Cost is not really a material matter in this. It is really about what factors will influence behaviour, and so what the result of a policy change will be.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
Robert James MacGillivray Neill (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is making a very powerful speech, a great deal of which I agree with. I recognise that the Government have done a great deal in many areas. One of the policy changes in the Bill is really quite modest: it is to make it easier for those who have fled in fear, as he said, to get around the very difficult and onerous requirements to provide documentation in order to access legal aid or exceptional case provisions. As I am sure he will know from his interest in the field, the British Red Cross found that some 74% of all family reunion cases were missing one or more documents. He will also know that someone who is genuinely fleeing in fear frequently does not have time to go through a checklist of documents they might need later. Is not that one of the reasons why this Bill, in a very modest way, improves things in the direction that he has argued for in the past?
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
David John Warburton (Conservative, Centre-right): No, I am not entirely comfortable with that. We need to look closely at how the Dubs scheme is now being run and what has happened to it since the Government accepted the amendment, because it has not necessarily been fully adopted, and councils have not taken it on in the way that they perhaps should have done I am not sure that secondary movements really do improve lives. There are examples that we can look at. In 2015, Germany’s asylum seeker intake increased by 155% as a result of people reacting specifically to policy change. Interestingly, more than 20% of the people who sought asylum in Germany that year were from the Balkan countries, which have been conflict-free for more than 20 years, so those people were not seeking refuge—they were seeking opportunity.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
David John Warburton (Conservative, Centre-right): As I am sure no one would disagree, it would only be in the interests of people traffickers—no one else—for children to be encouraged to leave their families and undertake perilous, difficult, dangerous journeys in the hope that their relatives might be able to join them in future; and how much worse if they found themselves forced to do that My experience in chairing the inquiry by the all-party parliamentary group on the British Council into resilience to extremism in north Africa and the middle east has shown clearly that there are an appalling number of criminal gangs looking to exploit vulnerable people in the region. Our role must be first to provide support in the region, upholding, for all the reasons we have heard, the principle that those who need international protection should be able to claim it in the first safe country they reach.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
David John Warburton (Conservative, Centre-right): I have not read it, but I would be extremely interested to do so, so I will look at it. I thank the hon. and learned Lady. It sounds like an interesting report. However, the pull factor does appear to be cited time and again. As I said, there is a clear example in Germany. I would therefore be intrigued to know how that organisation has come to the opposite conclusion We need to look at the quickest and the least precarious route to safety for refugees, rather than travelling into and across Europe to reach the UK. Having said that, it is also vital that we are in a position to continually review and mould policy to adapt ourselves to changing circumstances, as the Bill seeks to do. I am very pleased, as I said, that it is before the House and we are able to debate it. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Worcestershire (Nigel Huddleston), who is no longer in his place, I warn against using language like "empathy bypass" because that is not in the interests of a friendly, productive, non-partisan debate. We all have views. Obviously we all feel empathy, and we may express that in different ways. All opinion can be equally and properly expressed and valued, I hope.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
David John Warburton (Conservative, Centre-right): Let me get to the end of my speech I am very pleased that, as we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton Deane (Rebecca Pow), the Justice Secretary is undertaking a review of legal aid reforms in which he will, properly, address the legal aid changes in respect of immigration cases. I look forward to seeing the report later this year and any changes that will result. Above all, in tackling the plight of refugees we need to look at the causes. The Government must continue, as I have every faith that they will, to support international efforts to find a comprehensive and sustainable solution to the root causes of the refugee crisis. Yes, we must respond carefully and deliberately to the consequences of the situation in the middle east, but we must also focus hard on the matter itself. I feel sure that the Government will continue to do this, and I am sure that the whole House, if nothing else, will support those efforts.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman escorts me all around the world as we build positive trade relationships with our friends around the world. I will talk about some of that, and perhaps we can continue to agree on that, rather than on the substance of the Bill First, let us consider what the Bill asks. It aims to require the Home Secretary within six months to widen immigration rules and grant visas to a wide range of relatives. I contend that making it easier for a parent to join a child refugee could incentivise families to send their child ahead on a perilous journey, often in the hands of unscrupulous people traffickers The Bill would also amend the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, to extend legal aid to family reunion applications, but this is taxpayers’ money, and we must therefore be very responsible in how we spend it. The Bill makes no mention of how to encourage integration, how to provide education or how to offer other opportunities to refugees; nor does it make any attempt to tackle the situations that people are fleeing. Rather, it simply accepts that that will continue to be the case.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): I urge my hon. Friend to consider that this Bill is about refugees—not economic migrants, with whom one might have some sympathy, but people who are fleeing war, persecution and terror on a scale that none of us can even begin to imagine. The idea that someone would willingly put their child in an even more perilous place is frankly for the fairies.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena (Conservative, Centre-right): I respect my right hon. Friend’s contributions and her right to make them to the House, but as she lets me extend my argument, I think she will understand why I have concerns about this process, about the potential use of unscrupulous people traffickers and about some people in this country abusing the rules on refugees, which is wrong and devalues the argument on which we all agree about supporting genuine refugees.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
Huw William Merriman (Conservative, Centre-right): I speak for the fairies, as far as this is concerned. Logic would dictate that when refugees are coming from war-torn areas, they will do some incredibly desperate things, such as those that my hon. Friend has outlined. I do not think it is for the fairies at all. It is the sad reality of the terrible state of some countries around the world that forces these things to happen.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for his contribution. I think that he supports my point—[Interruption.] The debate is continuing behind me In explaining why I believe that the Bill is misguided, it seems important to discuss the current system that Britain has, as well as the international legal arrangements that underpin it. That history is important to where we are today. Principally, the UK is a party to the UN’s 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees and the 1967 protocol, which expanded coverage to refugees from beyond Europe and beyond those fleeing world war two. While the UN convention recommends that signatories take measures, it is important to note that it does not provide an automatic right to family reunion for refugees The convention does, however, recommend that signatories take the necessary measures for the protection of the refugee’s family, which I contend the Government do at present. Further, the Government clearly take more account than the Bill does of the protection of a refugee’s whole family, by reducing the pressures on family members, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman) said, to be trafficked or make dangerous journeys—pressures that I believe the Bill could amplify. Thirty years on from the UN convention and 20 years on from the protocol amending it, article 3 of the 1989 UN convention on the rights of the child ensures that the best interests of the child must always be the primary consideration.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena (Conservative, Centre-right): I will give way in a moment When assessing asylum claims, Home Office officials must already consider the best interests of the child. A similar consideration must be taken under another of the UK’s commitments in international law, which is as a signatory to the European convention on human rights. The UK is a signatory because of a historical desire to spread British values, and often where British values lead, the world has followed. It is often said that the convention was originally conceived by Churchill and drafted mainly by British lawyers It is perhaps ironic that, as I contend, shameless ambulance-chasing lawyers now use the convention as a stick with which to hit Britain in all sorts of situations. That is perhaps worst seen in their behaviour over soldiers in Iraq and Northern Ireland, but some of the worst offenders in the legal profession also use their skills to purport that certain people are refugees when they are not. That devalues the argument, which should rightly be agreed across the whole House, that genuine refugees ought to have the support of this country.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Civil Rights
Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend anticipates my argument. I set rights in the context of rights and responsibilities. In fact, he reminds me of my maiden speech, in which I referred to King John, who rode from his castle in my constituency to sign Magna Carta, creating rights for the first time in 1215. I said in my maiden speech that "human rights were not conceived in 1998. They have existed for centuries, but they did not exist in a vacuum. Rights were balanced by responsibilities."—[Official Report, 3 June 2015; Vol. 596, c. 646.] It was no less true in 1215 than in 2015 that rights to reunite refugees’ families must be balanced by responsibilities to prevent them from coming to harm and by responsibilities to the rest of our country.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. Again, he pre-empts my remarks, for I will talk a little bit about aid, which is a vital part of this debate Before I do so, I want to mention what one of my constituents has said. Graham wrote to me, saying that the fact "that the majority of would-be asylum seekers have landed within the EU on Mediterranean coasts and have then chosen to cross several countries within the EU (all of which could have provided refuge) does seem to contradict the argument that they are escaping persecution, hardship or war."—[Interruption.] I suggest that Opposition Members listen to the views of people in the country, rather than belittle them. This is, of course, the establishment view of people bought by vested interests, but they should actually consider what people feel in the country. They have all been criticising my constituent and maligning his views and intentions, but this very same constituent wrote in the same email of his "personal belief in a sensible, compassionate system of accepting genuine refugees where possible", and I agree with him.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): I gently say to my hon. Friend that this is not one of his greatest contributions. The Conservative party stands proudly on its record of offering refuge, especially to children in conditions of the kind he has actually described. May I please remind him that the Bill is about people who are genuine refugees and have been granted that status? If he could confine his comments to that, this debate would progress in a much more pleasant way.
Refugees (Family Reunion) (No.2) Bill — House of Commons, 2018-03-16
Topic: Immigration
Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena (Conservative, Centre-right): I respect my right hon. Friend and her position as a sponsor of the Bill. It is entirely her right to do that, but equally it is my right, and that of any Member, to hold contrary views. My argument, as I outlined earlier, is that some people game the system, which is wrong, and the risk, in my view, is that the Bill could encourage more people to do that or to undertake dangerous journeys and so sadly put more children in harm’s way Even the children that Sweden attempts to resettle can suffer if refugees are granted asylum without careful management. The article in The Telegraph stated that "in 2004, it was absorbing about 400 children a year. Five years ago, this had grown to 2,600 - and even then, the system was starting to creak... Last year, 35,000 unaccompanied children claimed asylum in Sweden" and that "providing the right care to so many is a task that would overwhelm a superpower, let alone a small Nordic state… Care homes have been set up so quickly that they fall far short of what’s needed to protect the staff, let alone the children. On Monday, a 22-year- old working at one of the homes - herself the daughter of immigrants - was stabbed to death." This is no lone case: "18 boys were found in an abandoned house with no toilets and no heating; the temperature was well below zero. They were sleeping on the floor, many under the same quilt to keep warm - one was just nine years old. But after being placed in a care home, they ran away and ended up sleeping rough again." Further: "There are ‘anchor children’, who are sent ahead by their desperate family"— the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle made earlier— "There are also trafficked children, who may still be in the hands of gangmasters and are being forced into work or prostitution. And there are the ‘street children"’ who live in abandoned buildings and are often sucked into a criminal underworld." The article concluded: "the lesson from the Continent is clear: to let in more immigrants than you can handle leads to trouble, but to admit more children"—