Asylum System (Hansard, 10 December 2001)

§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Rooker)
My Lords, this Government are committed to delivering an effective asylum system and we have made significant progress towards achieving this since coming to office. In the past financial year the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) at the Home Office made 132,840 initial decisions on asylum applications and there were 8,930 removals. The backlog of undecided asylum applications stood at 43,000 at the end of September this year.
Measures to increase the effectiveness of the system were announced by the Home Secretary in another place on 29th October. Further details will have to await the publication of the White Paper, which we expect to be in late January.

Lord Campbell of Croy
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply. The Home Secretary recently 1136 admitted that the asylum system was not working, and the latest figures show that of the 30,000 failed applicants due to be removed by March, only about 5,000 have been removed. Therefore, what progress is being made in identifying quickly both genuine refugees and potential terrorists?

§ Lord Rooker
My Lords, perhaps I may say to the noble Lord that we do not necessarily associate asylum seekers with terrorism in a global fashion, as implied in the question. The process needs to be speeded-up. Our target is to achieve 60 per cent of initial decisions in two months. At present, we are achieving about 50 per cent, so we are not too far off. We come closer each month to reaching our target.
The removals programme is a large one. To remove 30,000 people a year would mean removing 2,500 per month. We expect to reach 2,500 per month by the spring of next year. To do that sensitively and carefully without causing disturbance in communities requires enormous planning. That is taking place at present. It also requires an extension of the detention estate. We need to be able to detain prior to removal to make that effective.

§ Lord Dholakia
My Lords, I welcome the Government's latest press release, which talks about new categories of work permits to boost the UK economy. Does the Minister consider that skilled asylum seekers already in this country could benefit from this radical reform of the existing approach to migration?

§ Lord Rooker
My Lords, we are not planning that. One of the reasons for that is because the belief that asylum seekers with English language can work here is such a pull factor for the people traffickers.

§ Lord Alton of Liverpool
My Lords, I refer to a debate we had in your Lordships' House one month ago. Will the Minister give some thought to the introduction of an American-style green card system and the opportunity, therefore, for at least some of those who come to this country for economic reasons to stay here for licit and legal purposes? Can he tell the House what monitoring of the dispersal system is taking place and how many of those dispersed to other parts of the country return to London within the first six months or so of dispersal?

§ Lord Rooker
My Lords, I shall first answer the latter part of the noble Lord's question. Once we have dispersed some 30,000 people in about 18 months under the National Asylum Support Service, some pressure will be taken off the South East, and Kent in particular. Once the initial decisions are given or people enter the appeal process and come off support—they may be given exceptional leave to remain—we do not track people. We shall not know how many have returned to the South East. However, there is anecdotal evidence, which I have picked up in the East Midlands, in particular, that many people do not necessarily return.
1137 As regards the first part of the noble Lord's question, the White Paper will set out proposals for managed migration; that is, through more than one scheme. People will have an opportunity to come to this country to work. In some cases that may lead to settlement, and in other cases that will be for temporary purposes. The objective will be partly met—it will not be fully met. Those who wish to come to the country to work, as opposed to using the asylum system to seek to do that, will have an open and transparent means of doing so. We shall thereby remove the pull factor from the people traffickers.

Lord Berkeley
My Lords, can my noble friend tell the House who pays for the cost of travel; that is, of getting 2,500 people out of this country to wherever they are going? I do not imagine such people have the money to do that. Do the Government pay or someone else, such as the carriers?

§ Lord Rooker
My Lords, the cost of removing people from the country is funded by my department. At present the figure is about 200 per week, some 800 per month. We are some way short of reaching the target. Such removal is done in many ways. Sometimes we charter aircraft because it is the cheapest way.

§ Lord Greaves
My Lords, last week I met a lady from the Congo who came to this country eight years ago to apply for asylum. She, her husband and her children, two of whom were born in this country and have no other home to go to, have still not had an initial decision. The Home Office wrote to her last February stating that still she would have to wait. At the same time I met several other people who have been here for several years. Would it not be sensible for the Government to clear the backlog of people who have been here several years by giving them an amnesty and leave to stay in this country? To remove them in such circumstances would be utterly inhumane.

§ Lord Rooker
My Lords, I do not necessarily agree with the last point raised by the noble Lord. I regret that former constituents of mine, who have been in this country longer than the lady in the example given by the noble Lord, have not had a satisfactory decision. I agree that such cases are difficult and complex, given the phenomenal increase in the past few years. It is clear that we are targeting those on whom it is easier to make a decision. The easiest ones to remove will be those who have been here for a short time. That is self-evident. If the noble Lord writes to me with details of the case he mentions, I shall have it looked at. We regret the present situation, which is due to the lack of investment in the past. We have doubled the number of staff in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate to speed up decisions. The system was chaotic and had been so for several years. That is why people such as those in the example given by the noble Lord have fallen through the net.

Lord Campbell of Croy
My Lords, does the Minister recognise that my reference to potential 1138 terrorists arose from reports that some of the atrocities that had been committed abroad had been planned by people in this country, some having come here as refugees?

§ Lord Rooker
My Lords, of course that applies to some. I did not want the question and answer to pass without qualification because I believe that it would send the wrong signals to those outside. That is one of the reasons why we take fingerprints and check identities as far as possible. We are calling people into the reporting centres in a more rigorous, systematic and better managed way than we have ever done before. Part of the argument heard in this House in the past few days touches on the motives that people have for being here and the deeds they are planning abroad. That is one of the reasons for the anti-terrorism Bill.

§ The Earl of Sandwich
My Lords, are the Government stepping up their response to abduction of children for sexual exploitation and trafficking of such children in this country?

§ Lord Rooker
Yes, my Lords. Work is being done in that respect. There is little evidence of people being brought into this country for sexual exploitation in respect of children. There is some evidence that they are brought to this country for onward transfer to other European countries, which I shall not name. There is a good deal of active work being done at present, together with our partners in Europe and elsewhere.