Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 34
34
Accepted
Redouble efforts for international cooperation and prioritise safe, legal routes to the UK.
Recommendation
We urge the Government to show leadership through redoubling efforts to engage and co-operate with international partners. The provision of safe and legal routes to the UK should be a key part of the Government’s strategy to counter the criminal trade, and this has not yet received the attention it deserves. The Government risks undermining its own ambitions and the UK’s international standing if it cannot demonstrate that proposed policies such as pushbacks, now abandoned, and offshore processing, such as the Rwanda partnership now being legally challenged, are compatible with international law and conventions. (Paragraph 147) Channel crossings, migration and asylum 49
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees with the assertion that it has not paid sufficient attention to the problem, stating it continues to pursue bilateral and multilateral solutions with international partners. It highlights its existing provision of various safe and legal routes as evidence that this is already a key part of its strategy.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
As we set out above, there has been a massive surge in demand on the asylum systems from arrivals on small boats who should have claimed protection in the first safe country they reached rather than make illegal and dangerous crossings of the English Channel. There has also been an unprecedented increase into the National Referral Mechanism, with an increase of 450% referrals between 2014 and 2021 – with many referrals by those crossing in small boats. We disagree that the Government has not paid sufficient attention to this problem. We remind the Committee that this is a global problem, requiring global initiatives and innovative solutions. We continue to pursue bilateral and multilateral solutions with our French, EU, and other international partners. system. Our approach is therefore multi-faceted, cumulatively helping us tackle illegal migration. The Migration and Economic Development Partnership we intend between the UK and Rwanda is just one part of the approach and is built on the shared sense that current conventions for dealing with refugees and migration no longer work, and that we need new approaches, at scale, that give people seeking a better life - an alternative to paying people smugglers and risking their lives. Attempts to delay implementation of long-awaited reforms to the system were anticipated as we continue to face on-going challenge in our domestic courts. We are confident that the partnership is fully compliant with all national and international law, including the UN Refugee Convention and European Convention on Human Rights. Seeing the full impact will take time, but we have comprehensive monitoring and evaluation programmes already underway to consider the impact of our policies; and provide any learning so that we can adjust our approach accordingly and build on existing work in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022. We take our international obligations seriously, but illegal economic migration on this scale was not the issue in front of those drafting what are now decades old conventions and this Government has been generous in providing a variety of safe and legal routes for those in genuine need of protection. These include our Global Resettlement Route, Community Sponsorship Scheme, Mandate route, Ukraine Family Scheme, Homes for Ukraine Scheme, Hong Kong (British Nationals Overseas) route and Family Reunion route. Taken together these safe and legal routes have seen over 300,000 people offered sanctuary in the United Kingdom since 2015 and it would be wrong to suggest this is not a key part of the Government strategy.