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Lord Triesman: My Lords, my reply was about priorities. Even within the course of one year, it hardly seems the most vital thing that we could achieve in the international community. My noble friend offered a meeting in which the matter could be explored further. I urge noble Lords to take up that offer as a serious one that would certainly be relevant.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire: My Lords, I am not sure whether to be more amused or exasperated by that extraordinary response, in which we have been accused, as it were, of undermining the Government's efforts to abolish world poverty by suggesting the amendment. I had thought that the Minister was a signed-up member of new Labour. As I understand it, new Labour believes in modernisation and changein challenging the conventional wisdom and attacking inherited and outdated privilege. What I heard was that the Government prefer a quiet life on this matter, and would like to carry on according to the accepted principles.
If there is not in Her Majesty's Foreign Office a basic document that sets out the current framework for granting diplomatic privileges and immunities, and assesses the appropriate level of such privileges and to whom they should apply, I am astonished. If there is no such document, I assume that the Government operate completely by the seat of their pants on the issue. My respect for the Foreign Office's legal advisers is greater than that.
I attempted to categorise which new agencies get what, and did not find it very easy because a large number of new agencies and organisations are being created. If Her Majesty's Foreign Office would care to offer, say, a grant of £10,000 to employ three research students from some British university to go through the detail, I am sure that it could be done extremely easily and quickly. It is not a huge enterprise.
In suggesting that delays to the Bill will be created by the amendment, the Minister was going enormously over the top. We have no desire to delay the Bill. Our desire is to put down a marker about the extent to which the continuing expansion of international agencies deserves the continuing expansion of diplomatic rights and immunities.
The Minister referred to the abuse of immunities and we are well aware of those. The noble Baroness, Lady Rawlings, referred to the extent to which immunities are granted and then waived when challenged. One has to ask then, "Why are we spending so much time granting all these immunities if they are waived when necessary?".
I have some sympathy with the positions taken by the noble Lords, Lord Stoddart and Lord Pearson of Rannoch, as regards the European Union. I believe that we should question the continuation of what were diplomatic privileges and immunities in what is now a confederation.
On this occasion, we do not intend to divide the House. We do not want to delay the Bill, but we shall pursue the issue further in the face of the Government's general wimpishness on this and many
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other issues. I have previously attempted to push Ministers to challenge other EU member governments on areas in which they do not apply EU law. I was recently having a go at a senior German politician about the German government's refusal, for example, to recognise degrees from British universities. That refusal is clearly in contravention of EU law, but the Department for Education and Skills refuses to take up the matter.
I would like to see the Government being a little more true to the principles of new Labour as I hear them proclaimed from time to time. I struggle to understand what they are, but I do my best in that respect. I assure the Government Front Bench that we shall return to the matter and push the Government further. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 11 [Short title, interpretation, commencement and extent]:
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall now repeat a Statement made by my right honourable friend the Home Secretary in another place. The Statement is as follows:
"Mr Speaker, with permission, I would like to make a Statement about the five-year strategy which I am publishing today to take forward our reforms to the immigration and asylum system. The Government's approach to this important subject begins with the recognition that migration is vital for our economy and society.
"Visitors sustain a tourist industry which is worth £38 billion a year and employs more than 2 million people. Migrant workersskilled and unskilleddo key jobs which cannot be filled from our domestic labour force. Overseas students make a major contributioneconomic and intellectualto our educational institutions and many as a result develop lifelong ties with this country.
"The positive effect of migrants is true throughout the United Kingdom. For example, in Scotland, the declining population presents a particular challenge which Scottish Ministers are addressing through their fresh talent policy to attract and integrate bright talented people. We will continue to support measures of this kind.
"Moreover, this country has always been among those first in the world to recognise our moral and legal duty to offer protection to those genuinely fleeing death or persecution at home. And it is a fact that those who have migrated to this country over centuries have made, and continue to make, a major contribution to all aspects of our national life. But I think that the House will agree that it is essential to
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enforce our rules rigorously and fairly to ensure that we admit only those who bring this country the benefits or meet the moral obligations I have described.
"The proposals I am publishing today are intended to build upon the major progress which we have made in recent years. We have strengthened our borders by operating our own controls in northern France and Belgium, supported by sophisticated new technology to detect illegal immigrants in freight vehicles. This has substantially cut illegal entry through the Channel Tunnel, Calais and other ports.
"We have tightened the asylum system against abuse, reducing applications by 67 per cent from their peak. Since 1997 we have doubled the number of removals of those not entitled to be here. We have made our legal routes for migration much more robust against abuse.
"But we must do more to clarify the basis upon which we admit people to the UK, whether temporarily or permanently. And we must do more to ensure that we operate an effective control to prevent those who do not meet our criteria from getting here and that they leave when they are no longer entitled to be in the United Kingdom. It is lack of confidence in our systems of control which can foster bigotry of whatever kind and it is our responsibility to build that confidence.
"The strategy sets out a major programme of measures to do just this. We will continue to welcome genuine economic migration within strict criteria. The system we have at present works well, but it is complex and difficult to understand. Therefore, we will bring all our current schemes for work and student migrants into a simple points-based system. This will ensure that we are taking migrants only for jobs that cannot be filled from our own workforce and focusing on the skilled workers we need most.
"We believe that the labour available from European Union member statesold and newshould over time meet our national needs for low-skilled work and so, in consultation with the industries and over time, we intend to phase out the current low-skilled quota schemes. We will of course review with the sectors how to fill any gaps which still remain, but any new schemes will be, as now, quota-based, temporary and tightly managed to ensure people return home at the end of their stay. And they will be open only to nationals of countries who agree to take back their citizens when they are no longer entitled to remain in the UK.
"This points system will be supported by new measures to ensure that it is not abused. Workers and students will be required to have sponsors such as employers or educational institutions who will share the responsibility of ensuring they leave at the end of their time in the UK. The costs of running the visa system will be recovered from those who benefit. I am making a Written Statement on this in the House today.
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"Where there has been clear evidence of abuse, we are ready to introduce financial bonds to guarantee that migrants return home when they should. We will set up an independent skills advisory body to advise us on labour market needs and skills shortages. The Government believe that a modern market-based economy such as ours requires a system which is flexible and employer-led rather than some kind of centrally determined, rigid and arbitrary quota.
"We will continue to welcome genuine refugees. Like all other developed countries and the rest of the 145 nations which are now signatories, we will honour our obligations under the 1951 Geneva Convention. It is part of the international legal and ethical framework that enshrines basic principles of human decency. The Government reject the idea of a fixed and arbitrary quota of refugees and withdrawal from the convention as unworkable, unjust and counterproductive and immoral. Withdrawal would deny to us the international co-operation that we need to deal with the real problems which cause asylum, such as resolving conflict, combating immigration crime and returning failed asylum seekers to their own countries.
"We will continue to root out abuse by rigorously implementing the measures we have taken to identify genuine refugees, by further strengthening our borders and by removing those whose claims fail.
"We will rationalise the appeals system to improve access to justice. From April we will implement the new streamlined single tier of appeal. We will abolish the right of appeal against refusal of leave to enter the United Kingdom for work or study and we will tighten up the operation of family visit appeals.
"We will continue to allow permanent settlement in this country where there is clear economic benefit and where migrants wish to integrate socially. We will tighten our conditions of settlement to reflect this by requiring those who want to settle to pass tests on English language and knowledge of the United Kingdom; restricting settlement for economic migrants to skilled workers only; and extending the period they need to have been here to five years before they get settlement.
"We will in future grant genuine refugees temporary status once their asylum claim has been granted, as happens in many comparable European countries. We will encourage them to work and participate in local communities. We will keep the situation in their home country under review and if there has been significant improvement, we will expect them to return. If there has been no improvement after five years they will be permitted to settle in the United Kingdom.
"Over the next five years we will transform our immigration control. Using new technology we will develop an integrated system dealing with people before they enter the United Kingdom, at our
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borders and while they are in the country. We will fingerprint everyone when they apply for a visa. These fingerprints and other personal travel information will be checked against our own watch lists of those who present an immigration or security threat. Airlines will not have authority to carry people until this check has been made.
"ID cards will provide a simple and secure way of verifying identity, helping us to tackle illegal working, organised crime, terrorist activity, identity theft, and fraudulent access to public services. The new borders technology will record people's departure from the country which will help us to target our immigration checks. We will back this up with fines for employers who take on illegal labour.
"We will continue to crack down hard on organised immigration crime, which targets the most vulnerable, the poorest and the young. We have introduced tough new penalties, gone after criminal assets and established the multi-agency Reflex task force to co-ordinate law enforcement and intelligence activity. This will be a major priority for the new Serious Organised Crime Agency.
"Swift removal of those not entitled to be in this country is central to the credibility of the whole system. Although we have removed many more failed asylum seekers and other immigration offenders than ever before, we intend substantially to increase the number in future. We will introduce a new and faster process for asylum applications detaining more people and using other means of contact like tagging to prevent people absconding when they are ready to be removed. We will take new measures to prevent people concealing their identity by destroying their documents and thus making it much harder to get their own countries to take them back. We have already made it a criminal offence to arrive in the United Kingdom undocumented without good reason and we are asking airlines to copy travel documents on certain routes.
"But it will be most important to secure more effective returns arrangements with the countries from which most of our failed asylum seekers come. We will place migration at the centre of our relationship with these countries. We will give support to help with the reintegration of failed asylum seekers if they need it, but we will also make it clear to the relevant countries that failure to agree such a joint approach will have implications for our wider relationship, including access to some migration schemes.
"Migration is a consequence of the increasingly global world economy. Asylum is an international issue. We will best address and make progress on these issues through effective international co-operation, not through some kind of 'Fortress Britain' splendid isolation. The fact is that partnerships with other countries, the European Union and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees are essential to delivering our objectives.
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"Taken together, this is a major programme to build on the foundations we have laid by creating a system which will be, and will be seen to be, transparent and fair to all. It is a practical and systematic response to the real problems of asylum and immigration. It will provide a simple and robust system for economic migration. It will tighten our rules for permanent settlement to ensure that those who stay bring benefit to the United Kingdom. It represents real determination to eliminate illegal entry, illegal working, asylum abuse and the people-trafficking gangs who, through their heinous crimes, gain most from the failures of our system. I commend this strategy to the House".
My Lords, that concludes the Statement.
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