Children and Social Work Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2016-11-08
Topic: Immigration
Shaista Sheehan (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I am a signatory to this amendment because for months after Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 came into force there were no processes or resources put in place to indicate any sense of urgency on the part of the Government to use it to bring unaccompanied minors from camps in Greece, Italy or—closer to home—the Jungle camp in Calais to the UK. This was foot dragging on the part of the Government; in spite of the fact that approximately 10,000 unaccompanied children across Europe had disappeared, no sense of urgency seemed to prevail This was in sharp contrast to my personal experience of the Jungle camp in Calais, which was that associations on the ground were putting in a monumental effort to meet the standards set and overcome bureaucratic barriers to identify a process whereby unaccompanied minors could be identified as being eligible to come to Britain under Section 67. The Government will recognise the work put in by Safe Passage, a branch of Citizens UK, in this regard When this amendment was put down I gladly added my name to it, as its first ask was for the Government to, "publish a strategy for the safeguarding of unaccompanied refugee children living in the United Kingdom and children who have been identified for resettlement in the United Kingdom under section 67 of this Act" When I read in detail the joint ministerial Statement by Edward Timpson, Minister of State for Vulnerable Children, and Robert Goodwill, Home Office Minister of State for Immigration, I was disappointed to find that, in committing to publish a strategy by May 2017, there was no mention of children who have been identified for resettlement in the UK under Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 Secondly, the amendment specifically asks that, in proposed new Section 67A(2)(b) of that Act, the Secretary of State, in formulating the strategy, must, "evaluate the procedures for, and speed of, resettling those unaccompanied refugee children who have been identified for resettlement in the United Kingdom under section 67 of this Act" Let us compare that to the Government’s response: "In developing our strategy we will evaluate the procedures for, and speed of, transferring unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children who have been identified for transfer from Europe" That sounds okay—but, crucially, there is again no mention of children who qualify under Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 Furthermore, in paragraph 10 of the joint ministerial Statement, the Government again fail to include children who qualify under Section 67. The Statement says: "In taking forward this work my department will also revise the statutory guidance published in 2014 on the ‘Care of unaccompanied and trafficked children’ so it covers the safeguarding of children transferred under Dublin provisions and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who arrive spontaneously who then explain that they have family in the United Kingdom with whom they wish to live".—[Official Report, Commons, 1/11/16; col. 28WS.] So a third opportunity was missed to include children who qualify under Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016. I suppose that by "children who arrive spontaneously" the Ministers were referring to minors who resort to taking their chances on the backs of lorries, in effect giving succour to the smugglers who profit by such activity. The joint Statement fails at every opportunity to fulfil materially and in spirit what the amendment seeks. Indeed, it seems to sanction the spontaneous arrival of unaccompanied minors over the legal route of Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 by its omission to mention it even once. Do the Government not recognise that spontaneous arrival means more risk-taking by youngsters who have lost all hope that they will be able to come to the UK by legal means, and that it will add to the total of 14 deaths this year alone of people, including four minors, who lost their lives taking this desperate course of action The Ministers’ Statement has the effect of taking all sense of urgency out of the need to move children to the UK from France using safe and legal routes. Indeed, since the closure of the camp in Calais, the Home Office officials seem not to have processed many cases at all—if any. Can the Minister tell me how many children have been processed and brought to the UK since the evacuation of the unaccompanied minors from the shipping containers on 2 November? My information is that not a single one has come over since then Sadly, the flurry of activity we saw in the wake of media interest during the demolition of the Jungle camp in Calais seems to have died. I am currently receiving reports that no Home Office officials have visited the specialised CAOs—reception centres for children. Nor, for that matter, have any officials, be they French or British. One report from a specialised children’s reception centre near the Spanish border states that nobody has been near the children at all; all they do is eat and sleep, and there is no official to ask any questions of, either I will leave it there. This is quite an unsatisfactory state of affairs and I look forward to the Minister’s response.