Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, Etc.) Bill — Give support to failed asylum seekers and their families — rejected — 1 Mar 2004 at 18:00

The majority No voters rejected an amendment^[1] to the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, Etc.) Bill.

The Bill withdraws support for failed asylum seekers and their families^[2]. This occurs when the asylum seeker has not taken reasonable steps to leave the UK. It also limits the grounds on which asylum seekers can appeal against this decision. In this vote the Aye voters aimed to prevent this change from taking place but were defeated.

In moving the amendment Hilton Dawson MP explained that:

• 'I am not aware of any measure that has reached this stage in the House that would make children in this country destitute. I cannot believe that such a measure is acceptable. Frankly, I cannot believe that it is coming from the party of which I have been a member for more than quarter of a century. Such a measure is unnecessary and would be counter-productive. Once all advocacy has failed, there is a more effective way to work with families who have to return home.'^[3]

However, Beverley Hughes MP argued that the amendment would:

• 'mean that we would be unable to withdraw support from families, no matter how much resistance they had shown or how much time and opportunity they had been given to leave the country once their claim had failed. We would therefore be in a very difficult position, both in terms of trying to achieve our policy objective and of explaining to our constituents how we could require people who were not legally in the country to leave but, if they refused to do so, we would have to continue to pay them to stay here indefinitely.'^[4]

The Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill became law in 2004. Its main aims were to:^[5]

• 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
• 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, 1 March 2004
• [2] Clause 7 in the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill
• [3] Hilton Dawson MP, House of Commons, 1 March 2004
• [4] Beverley Hughes MP, House of Commons, 1 March 2004
• [5] Based on The Guardian's A-Z of legislation

Debate in Parliament | Historical Hansard | Source |