Date: 2023-04-26
Stella Creasy: Let us be very clear: demonising refugees will not tackle the cost of living crisis in this country, but it might create some local election leaflets, just like this piece of legislation. We know that this legislation will not survive the other place, thankfully, so the question for us today is: what messages do we need to send to our colleagues in the other House as they scrutinise and hold to account this Government, given that the Government have systematically failed to provide the time for scrutiny in this place? First, we need to tell the Lords that this Government have no idea how to solve the problem that we all want to fix, which is stopping the boats and stopping the traffickers. Nothing in this legislation targets the traffickers themselves: there is no increase in deterrence for them. There is no increase in sentencing--nothing about joint enterprise, for example--and nothing about those people who are illegal overstayers here, which could have been brought in to deter the traffickers. I agreed with the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) when she said that the Bill will simply help those who engage in trafficking, because it will allow them to threaten the people who might come forward. Secondly, the Bill tells us that the Government do not respect the role of the international rule of law, or understand why international co-operation matters if we actually want to address these concerns. Imagine if every country took the approach that the Minister did when he was trying to say that no one should claim asylum in the UK; they should go and do it somewhere else. The whole system would collapse. It is by working with other countries, upholding the European Court of Human Rights, and doing our bit that we will manage this issue better. Thirdly, the Bill tells us that this Government have no idea at all what modern slavery is, although, frankly, I am not sure they really care, given their reaction: time and again, they talk about evidence but produce none to back up their claims. Fourthly, the Bill tells us that the Government do not really care about the children who are already on our doorstep. I am glad to see the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) doing the work that he has done, but I have to tell him that I am very sceptical that there will be meaningful change, whether for children who are accompanied or those who are not, because every refugee child in this country is vulnerable. The children in the hotels in my constituency who were sexually assaulted were with relatives; those children who have gone missing have family who are looking for them. The Children's Commissioner is terrified, which is why I have tabled my amendment to remove children and pregnant women from clause 2, but I will also support the amendments tabled by my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Dame Diana Johnson). I will also mention the age verification processes that sound like something out of a Margaret Atwood novel, yet Government Ministers want to support them, and the removal of the independent family review panel. This Government clearly do not understand that we need a focus, not on travel, but on the threat that people face, if we really want to tackle this problem. That is why safe and legal routes matter. The Minister can rumble on at the Dispatch Box, he can avoid questions, he can remove basic protections and decency standards so that we are waiting for refugees to live in Grenfell Tower perhaps, without smoke alarms, without--