Select committee: Home Affairs Committee
Conclusion 18
First Report - Channel crossings, migration and asylum
Published 18 Jul 2022
Paragraph 67
Addressed to Home Office
Home Affairs Committee Channel crossings, migration and asylum-seeking routes through the EU All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Home Office must also set out what steps it is taking to ensure that the mental and physical wellbeing of those who are relocated to Rwanda is secured for the long term. The agreement with Rwanda implies that the UK will have no responsibility for people relocated once they have arrived in their new accommodation, who will have no right of return to the UK. The UNHCR is strongly of the view that such responsibility does remain with the UK Government even once it has relocated people elsewhere. Given the lessons of the Australian experience, this carries a significant reputational risk for the UK, and we seek assurances that the Government will actively monitor the accommodation, health and educational outcomes achieved for those who are relocated after seeking refuge or a future in this country and details of how that monitoring will be conducted and what actions will be taken in the event of any failure to deliver safe and secure new lives.
From: Home Affairs Committee, First Report - Channel crossings, migration and asylum (HC 199), paragraph 67, 18 July 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 28 October 2022 (deadline 18 September 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government's overall position is that there is "no silver bullet" for illegal migration, that the Rwanda partnership is "just one part of the approach", and that it disagrees with the Committee's criticism that it has not paid sufficient attention to the problem.
- On the Committee's proposal for UK asylum assessment facilities in France, the Government says it "could not possibly consider protection claims from the very large numbers of individuals overseas who might like to come to the UK", and that this could "create a new pull factor".
- On the Rwanda partnership, the Government disputes that policies were announced without agreement across departments. It says full funding details would be "prejudicial to interests of the UK government", and that it will provide an updated Accounting Officer note "ahead of the next financial year".
- On the Committee's call for an independent end-to-end review of children's experience of the asylum system, the Government says it "will commit to looking at the current projects and research in progress to determine their suitability".
- On guardianship for young asylum seekers, the Government says there is "currently no intention to expand the scope" of the Independent Child Trafficking Guardian service to all young asylum-seeking children in England and Wales, citing its "specialist nature".