Nationality and Borders Bill — Decline Second Reading — 20 Jul 2021 at 18:47

The majority of MPs voted for a series of changes to the law on immigration and nationality, including permitting the removal of asylum seekers with applications pending to other countries and provisions aimed at discouraging unsafe and dangerous routes of entry.

MPs were considering the Nationality and Borders Bill^[1][2][3]

MPs were considering the motion:

• That the Bill be now read a Second time.

The amendment rejected in this vote was:

• to leave out from “That” to the end of the Question and add
• “That this House
• declines to give a Second Reading to the Nationality and Borders Bill, notwithstanding the need to address the increasing number of dangerous boat crossings in the English Channel, because the Bill breaches the 1951 Refugee Convention, does not address the Government’s failure since 2010 to competently process asylum applications which has resulted in a backlog of cases and increased costs to the taxpayer, fails to deal with the serious and organised crime groups who are profiteering from human trafficking and modern slavery, does not address the failure to replace the Dublin III regulations to return refugees to safe countries, fails to re-establish safe routes and help unaccompanied child refugees, and fails to deliver a workable agreement with France to address the issue of boat crossings.

Approval of the second reading would enable the Bill to continue on its path to becoming law.

The Bill seeks:

• * to permit asylum seekers with applications pending being removed to other safe countries, or being required to go to such countries.
• * to permit treating refugees who have not "come to the United Kingdom directly from a country or territory where their life or freedom was threatened" and "presented themselves without delay to the authorities" differently from other refugees.
• * to empower ministers to require asylum seekers to stay in accommodation centres for longer.
• * to set out classes of designated places where asylum claims must be made.
• * to deem asylum claims from EU nationals, or those with a connection to a third safe state, inadmissible, other than in exceptional circumstances
• * to introduce a deadline for provision of evidence in support of protection or human rights claim, and to generally give little weight to evidence produced late.
• * to introduce priority removal notices, and expedited processes, for certain applicants for asylum.
• * to cap legal aid for those subject to priority removal notices at seven hours of aid.
• * to "stipulate that a person will not be deemed to have come directly if they have stopped in another country between leaving the country where they faced persecution and arriving in the UK" with exceptions, and to provide that those who did not come directly may face penalties "on grounds of their illegal presence or illegal entry into the UK".
• * to reduce "the threshold at which a refugee is considered to have committed a particularly serious crime, and so is potentially subject to removal on the grounds they constitute a danger.
• * creates a new criminal offence of arriving in the UK without a valid entry clearance (updating a previous offence of "knowingly entering the UK without leave").
• * raises the maximum penalty for "assisting unlawful immigration or asylum seekers" from 14 years’ to life imprisonment
• * to create a new civil penalty that may be issued on persons responsible for goods vehicles that have not been adequately secured, whether or not there is someone hiding in their vehicle.
• * "to provide a statutory minimum period to enable individuals to access justice prior to removal and makes provisions for removing individuals, following a failed departure, without the need for a further notice period."
• * to enable consideration of if an individual has failed to cooperate with processes when deciding if to release them on immigration bail.
• * to enable people whose mothers are British overseas territories citizens to acquire British overseas territories citizenship; treating parents equally in terms of their ability to pass on citizenship.
• * to enable those born to unmarried British overseas territories citizen fathers to acquire British overseas territories citizenship from their fathers.
• * "to remove the requirement that an application for the registration of a child as a British overseas territories citizen must be made within 12 months of the birth".
• * to make further amendments to the rules on acquiring British overseas territories citizenship.
• * to allow the Secretary of State to waive the requirement that a person must have been in the United Kingdom or a relevant territory at the start of the relevant period, in relation to certain applications for citizenship.
• * to enable stateless children born in the United Kingdom or a British overseas territory after the provision comes into force to become a British citizen or a British overseas territories citizen.

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• [1] Parliament's webpage on the Nationality and Borders Bill, Parliament.uk
• [2] Nationality and Borders Bill, as introduced 6 July 2021, Parliament.uk
• [3] Explanatory notes to the Nationality and Borders Bill, as introduced 6 July 2021, Parliament.uk

Debate in Parliament |