Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill — Decline to give a Second Reading — rejected — 17 Dec 2003 at 18:43

The majority No voters rejected an amendment^[1] to decline to give a Second Reading to the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill. If passed the amendment would have prevented the Bill from moving to the committee stage. However, it was defeated.

The Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill became law in 2004. Its main aims were to:^[2]

• Simplify the process of appeal for asylum seekers
• Criminalise people who arrive into the UK without a valid travel document unless they have a reasonable excuse
• Stop supporting failed asylum seekers and their families if they do not leave the UK^[3]
• Allow the government to tag and track asylum seekers
• Provide accommodation to failed asylum seekers who cannot return home immediately

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• [1] Hilton Dawson MP, House of Commons, 17 December 2003
• [2] Based on The Guardian's A-Z of legislation
• [3] This was the part of the Bill that particularly concerned MPs who didn't want the Bill to proceed

Debate in Parliament | Historical Hansard | Source |