The doubts come when people claim to suffer from persecution not from the state itself but from other organisations or paramilitary groups that may be acting independently of the state and over which the state has no control. The amendment is important because the European Union had a resolution some time ago which would mean that only those persecuted by the state could be recognised as refugees. That was a quite negative and restrictive resolution and one which would undermine the rights of many asylum seekers who, if they were sent back, would face the same persecution from which they had fled even if the acts of persecution were not themselves committed by the state. In commonsense terms, it is a very simple proposition and it is easy to understand. Persecution which does not involve state complicity is still persecution.
Nothing can be clearer than that.
Perhaps I may give the House one or two examples which will illustrate the situation. When I was with the Refugee Council we were very concerned about asylum seekers being returned to Zaire. I have not got the letter in front of me, but some years ago the then immigration Minister wrote that there was no persecution of asylum seekers who were returned by the Government of Zaire. But the letter went on to admit that there could be dangers from paramilitary organisations not under the control of the government. Although the British Government were sending people back, they were in effect conceding that there were dangers to returned asylum seekers from bodies which were behaving in an illegal manner as far as the state of Zaire was concerned and who were not under the control of the state.