Illegal Migration: Pull Factors

Question

15:14:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the “pull factors” attracting migrants to enter the United Kingdom illegally.

The Government are committed to tackling illegal migration and the criminal networks behind it. We have launched campaigns directed at misinformation on pull factors and are taking a tougher action on illegal working in particular. There is no single universal pull factor independently driving irregular migration to the UK. In many cases, asylum seekers or illegal migrants are being directed or even coerced by organised criminal networks. The Government keep all these issues under review.

I thank the Minister for his response. The Minister is currently introducing some minor measures to make it more difficult for the traffickers facilitating small boat crossings, and I support those measures, but does he believe that it is sustainable for us as a nation to admit between 10,000 and 23,000 migrants per week, largely legally, meaning that we are increasing our population by at least 500,000 per year indefinitely? Will he confer with his colleagues in government with a view to convening all-party talks to try to reach a consensus on how migration is to be dealt with long term, and commence a national conversation with the objective of reducing the anxiety and toxicity around this issue?

The noble Lord is absolutely right that we need to reduce the anxiety and toxicity around this issue. I reassure him that, first and foremost, the Government are committed to meeting their international obligations, which include asylum claims legitimately put before the United Kingdom. He may have noticed that an immigration White Paper was produced recently by the Government, which raises a number of issues. We need to look at pull factors, certainly, but the Government are also taking very strong action on cross-border, cross-channel issues, including the removal of people who have failed their asylum claims, the removal of foreign national criminals and the removal of individuals who are illegally working in the United Kingdom, as well increasing prosecutions. There is a range of measures, and we discuss this internally in government every day of the week.

Immigration is a global crisis, with every wealthy country in the world suffering social and political pressures from unsustainable levels of immigration from poorer countries. Do the Government therefore agree that there needs to be international co-operation involving the British Government before this can ever be solved? Are the Government engaging with the 15 or so European countries and the European Commission in the discussions that they are having about trying to close the southern European border? A policy on that subject would greatly reduce the number of people reaching the camps in Calais. Are the Government involved in that?

The noble Lord is absolutely right. In April and May this year, the Government were involved, along with 50 nations across the European Union and elsewhere, in examining the drive factors—rather than the pull factors that the noble Lord, Lord Empey, mentioned—that are pushing people away from areas of conflict, hunger or starvation into the Mediterranean and beyond, into Europe. The Government are looking very strongly, with European partners, at how we can work internationally in Europe and in the United Kingdom to ensure that we tackle those drive factors as well. That is why we have had the Calais Group of Belgium, Holland, France and the United Kingdom, and the recent discussions with the Germans last week and with the President of France only a couple of weeks ago. That international action is absolutely essential.

Will my noble friend confirm something that the young people in Calais told me when I was there—namely, that if they enter the EU in Greece or Italy they are pretty well obliged to be fingerprinted and indeed recorded as asylum claimants? Therefore, they cannot claim asylum in France, and tell me that there is then nowhere else to go except the UK. Will the recent agreements with France and other EU countries deal with that?

I am grateful to my noble friend for his comments. Through the agreement with France we are trying to ensure that those who reach the United Kingdom illegally by crossing the channel have their biometrics taken and are returned to France as part of an exchange of legal asylum seekers who are being cleared by the French to claim asylum. That is a pilot scheme that is being looked at much more widely. When we have assessed it post the Summer Recess, we will look at whether it has been successful or not. It is quite clear that the taking of biometric information, in Europe and the United Kingdom, is key to identifying and processing individuals who are genuine asylum seekers and distinguishing them from individuals who are here by illegal means or who have been trafficked by people traffickers.

My Lords, I draw attention to my interests and to the fact that I am supported by the RAMP organisation. We clearly need robust information and evidence about which factors are actually influencing these movements. Current knowledge is limited and sometimes incomplete and outdated. Will the Minister commit to commissioning and publishing more comprehensive data and research, so that future policy is guided by clear evidence rather than by assertion, assumption or anecdote?

I cannot commit to that, I am afraid, simply because the Home Office currently undertakes significant research on those very factors. Self-evidently, the English language is a pull factor for people, because English is a very common and well-understood language throughout the world. The perception of the UK as a place where work can be gained is important, but that work tends to be illegal, which is why we have had a major push in the last 12 months on illegal working. There are other factors at play in relation to that movement. We are monitoring those at the Home Office. I am happy to look at other research that is done, but this is the daily business of the office that I represent in this House.

My Lords, have the Government given consideration to the introduction of identity cards, together with the requirement that in order to get work people are required to have identity cards? Would this not make a profound difference to the employment prospects of those arriving illegally?

We collect biometric data. I have said many times in this House that, when I was last a Home Office Minister, in 2009-10, we had identity cards and we planned to expand them further. They were scrapped by the then coalition Government. That is a decision that we may all wish to reflect on. Indeed, I know that some Members who voted for that now reflect with some passion that it was the wrong decision at the time. We need to focus on where we are now. It is not about building a wider identity card system but about gathering the identities of those who come here illegally, ensuring that those who claim asylum do so properly, processing them very quickly and returning those who are here illegally or who do not meet the asylum criteria.

My Lords, some 22,000 people have used small boat crossings to illegally breach our borders so far this year, which is some 57% up on the same period last year. The situation is quite obviously out of control and the pull factors are overwhelming any deterrent effect that the Government wish to create with their border security Bill. Will the Minister please update the House with the latest biographical information he has on those arriving in small boats—I realise that perhaps he does not have it to hand today? What is the average age of those arriving? What is their sex? Can he tell us the reason most commonly given by them as to why they have come to the UK illegally? As I say, if he does not have that information, perhaps he would write to me and put a copy in the Library.

I cannot give the noble Lord chapter and verse on all that detail in the half a minute that I have to answer his question, but I can say that 35,000 failed asylum seekers who came on small boats were removed last year, which is 13% more than in the 12 months previous, when his Government were in charge. There has been a 51% increase in the number of people who have been arrested and prosecuted on illegal working visits. We are taking action on these difficulties. Although he says that the figure is high now, and it is, it is nowhere near the 43,000 people a year who were coming in 2018. In 2016, only 400 people crossed the channel, and I think he knows who was in charge when that rise occurred.

My Lords, could my noble friend the Minister indicate whether the Government considered working in the social care sector as one of the pull factors for illegal migrants entering the UK when they decided in their White Paper to remove the social care sector from the list of occupations that can recruit migrant workers? Did they take into consideration the need for adequate staffing in the sector and the reported high number of vacancies?

I am grateful to my noble friend. She raises a sector where there are employment shortages. One of the tasks of the Government in the employment and immigration White Paper is to reskill and upskill individuals from the United Kingdom to fill those vacancies. With social care visas, there were significant issues regarding non-compliance and exploitation by unscrupulous employers. We have had to take steps to address those concerns and will continue to do so, but we also need to work with the Department of Health in England and with the devolved Administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to ensure that we look at how we fill those vacancies and what the needs are. We have a transition period until 2028, which will permit visa extensions and in-country switching for those already in the country, but we need to make sure that that system is not abused. Sadly, I have to report to my noble friend that it was, so this Government are taking action.