With permission, I will update the House
on actions that we are taking with
France to strengthen our border security
and the next steps on our reforms to the
asylum system. The House will be aware
that when we came into the government,
we found an asylum and immigration
system in chaos. Smallboat gangs for
seven years had been allowed to embed
their criminal trade along the French
coast. The asylum backlog was soaring
and illegal working was being ignored.
The previous government had lost control
of the system and as a result opened
many hundreds of asylum hotels across
the country while returns were a third
lower than in 2010. And before leaving
office, they deliberately cut asylum
decision-making by 70%, leaving a
steeply rising backlog behind.
It is little wonder that people right
across the country lost confidence in
the system and demanded to know why they
were paying the price of a system that
was so out of control.
>> But that does not mean that people
rejected the long and proud history of
Britain doing our bit to help those
fleeing persecution or conflict,
including in the past decade families
from Ukraine, Syria, and Hong Kong.
because it is the British way to do our
bit alongside other countries to help
those who need sanctuary. But the system
has to be controlled and managed based
on fair and properly enforced rules, not
chaos and exploitation driven by
criminal smuggler gangs. And it is
exactly because of our important
tradition that substantial reforms are
needed. Now, in our first year in
government, we've taken immediate
action, laying the foundations for more
fundamental reform. We have restored
asylum decision-making and then rapidly
increased the rate of decisions. Had we
continued with the previous government's
freeze on asylum decisions, thousands
more people would have been in hotels
and asylum accommodation by now.
Instead, we removed 35,000 people with
no right to be here, including a 28%
increase in returns of failed asylum
seekers and a 14% increase in removals
of foreign criminals. We've increased
raids and arrests on illegal working by
50% and we cut the annual hotel bill by
almost a billion pounds in the last
financial year. We are rolling out
digital ID and biometric kits so
immigration enforcement can check on the
spot whether someone has a right to work
or a right to be in the UK. And on
channel crossings and organized
immigration crime, we are putting in
place new powers, new structures, and
new international agreements to help
dismantle the criminal ind industry
behind the boats.
So I want to update the House on the
further steps we're now taking. In
August, I signed the new treaty with
France, allowing us for the first time
to directly return those who arrive on
small boats.
The first detentions took place the next
day of people immediately on arrival in
Dova, and we expect the first returns to
begin later this month. Applications
have also been opened for the reciprocal
legal route with the first cases under
consideration, subject to strict
security checks. We've made clear this
is a pilot scheme, but the more we prove
the concept at the outset, the better we
will be able to develop and grow it. But
the principles it embodies are crucial
because no one should be making these
dangerous or illegal journeys on small
boats. And if they do, we want to see
them swiftly returned. But in return, we
believe in doing our bit alongside other
countries to help those who have fled
persecution through managed and
controlled legal programs.
This summer, we've also taken further
action to strengthen enforcement against
smuggling gangs. France has reviewed its
maritime approach to allow for the
interception of taxi boats in French
waters, and we will continue to work
with them to implement this change as
soon as possible. In the last year, the
National Crime Agency has led 347
disruptions of immigration crime
networks, their highest level on record,
and a 40% increase in a year. Over the
summer, we announced a100 million pound
uplift in funding for border security
and up to 300 more personnel in the
National Crime Agency focusing on
targeting the smuggler gangs. And the
border security bill will give them
stronger powers. Counterterrorism powers
against smuggler gangs, powers to seize
and download mobile phones of small boat
arrivals, and the power to ban sex
offenders from the asylum system
altogether.
>> Mr. Mr. Speaker, if opposition parties
work with us to speed passage through
the other place instead of opposing the
bill, those powers could be in place
within months, making our country safer
and more secure.
>> Let me turn now to the major reforms
that are needed to fix the broken asylum
system that we inherited. Although we
have increased decision-making and
increased returns, the overall system
remains sclerotic, outdated, and unfair.
So, as we committed in the immigration
white paper, we will shortly set out
more radical reforms to modernize the
asylum system and to boost our border
security. tackling the pull factors,
strengthening enforcement, making sure
people are treated fairly, reforming the
way that the ECR is interpreted here at
home, speeding up the system, cutting
numbers, and ending the use of hotels
and developing controlled and managed
routes for genuine refugees.
At the heart of these reforms will be a
complete overhaul of the appeals system.
The biggest obstacle to reducing the
size of the asylum system and to ending
hotel use because tens of thousands of
people in asylum accommodation are
currently waiting for appeals. And under
the current system, that figure is to
grow with an average wait time already
of 54 weeks. So, we have already funded
thousands of additional sitting days
this year. And the border security bill
will introduce a statutory time frame of
24 weeks. But we need to go further. So,
we will introduce a new independent body
to deal with immigration and asylum
appeals, fully independent of
government, staffed by professionally
trained adjudicators with safeguards to
ensure high standards, but able to surge
capacity as needed to accelerate and
prioritize cases alongside new
procedures to tackle repeat applications
and unnecessary delays. We're also
increasing detention and returns
capacity, including a thousand bed
expansion at Campsfield and Haslar with
the first trench of additional beds
coming online within months to support
many thousands more enforced removals
each year. And our reforms will also
address the overly complex system for
family migration, including changes to
the way that article 8 of the ECR is
interpreted. We should be clear,
international law is important. It is
because other countries know that we
abide by it that we have been able to
make these new agreements with France to
return people who arrive on small boats.
To make new agreements with Germany to
stop the warehousing of small boats by
criminal gangs, and to explore returns
hubs, partnerships with other European
countries. But we also need the
interpretation of international law to
keep up with the realities and
challenges of today's world. But there
is one area where we also need to make
more immediate challenges.
The current rules for family reunion for
refugees were designed many years ago to
help families separated by war,
conflict, and persecution. But the way
they are now being used has changed.
Even just before the pandemic, refugees
who applied to bring family to the UK
did so on average more than one or two
years after they had been granted
protection, long enough for them to be
able to get jobs or find housing or be
able to fi provide their family with
some support. In Denmark and
Switzerland, currently those granted
humanitarian protection are not able to
apply to bring family for at least two
years after protection has been granted.
But here in the UK now, however, those
applications come in on average in
around a month after protection has been
granted, often even before a newly
granted refugee has left asylum
accommodation.
As a consequence, refugee families who
are arrive are far more likely to be
seeking homelessness assistance. And
some councils are finding that more than
a quarter of their family homelessness
applications are linked to refugee
family reunion. That is not sustainable.
Currently, there are also no conditions
on family reunion for refugee sponsors,
unlike those in place if the sponsor is
a British citizen or a long-term UK
resident, and that is not fair. Finally,
the proportion of migrants who have
arrived on small boats and who then
apply to bring family has also increased
sharply in recent years with signs that
smuggler gangs are now able to use the
promise of family reunion to promote
dangerous journeys to the UK.
Mr. Speaker, we continue to believe that
families staying together is important
and it's why we will seek to prioritize
family groups among the applicants to
come to Britain under our new deal with
France. But reforms are needed. So, in
our asylum policy statement later this
year, we will set out a new system for
family migration, including looking at
contribution requirements, longer
periods before newly granted refugees
can apply, and dedicated controlled
arrangements for unaccompanied children
and for those fleeing persecution who
have family in the UK. And we aim to
have some of those changes in place for
the spring. But in the meantime, we do
need to address the immediate pressures
on local authorities and the risks from
criminal gangs using family reunion as a
pull factor to encourage more people
onto dangerous boats. Therefore, we are
bringing forward new immigration rules
this week to temporarily suspend new
applications under the existing
dedicated refugee family reunion route.
Until the new framework is introduced,
refugees will be covered by the same
family migration rules and conditions as
everyone else. Mr. Speaker, let me turn
next to the action we're taking to
ensure that every asylum hotel will be
closed for good under this government.
Not just by shifting individuals from
hotels to other sites, but by driving
down the numbers in supported
accommodation overall. and not in a
chaotic way through peacemeal court
judgments, but through a controlled,
managed and orderly program, driving
down inflow into the asylum system,
clearing the appeals backlog, which is
crucial, and continuing to increase
returns
within the asylum estate. We're
reconfiguring sites, increasing room
sharing, tightening the test for
accommodation, and working at pace to
identify alternative, cheaper, and more
appropriate accommodation with other
government departments and with local
authorities. And we're increasing
standards and security and joint public
safety cooperation between the police,
accommodation providers, and the home
office to ensure that laws and rules are
enforced.
Mr. Mr. Speaker, I understand and agree
with local councils and communities who
want the asylum hotels in their
communities closed because we need to
close all asylum hotels and we need to
do so for good. But that must be done in
a controlled and orderly manner and not
through a return to the previous
government's chaos that led to the
opening of hotels in the first place.
>> Finally, Mr. Mr. Speaker, let me update
the House on the continued legal and
controlled support that we will provide
for those facing conflict and
persecution. We will continue to do our
bit to support Ukraine, extending the
Ukraine permission extension scheme by a
further 24 months with further details
to be set out in due course. We're also
taking immediate action to rescue
children who have been seriously injured
in the horrendous onslaught on civilians
in Gaza so they can get the health
treatment they need. and the foreign
secretary will update the house shortly
on the progress to get those children
out. I can confirm that the home office
has put in place systems to issue
expedited visas with biometric checks
conducted prior to arrival for children
and their immediate accompanying family
members. And we have done the same for
all the achievement scholars and are in
the process of doing so now for the next
group of students from Gaza who have
been awarded fully funded scholarships
and places at UK universities so they
can start their studies in autumn this
year.
And later this year, we will set out
plans to establish a permanent framework
for refugee students to come study in
the UK so we can help more talented
young people fleeing war and persecution
to find a better future alongside capp
and managed ways for refugees to work
here in the UK. Mr. Speaker, this
government is determined to fix every
aspect of the broken system we inherited
and to restore the confidence of the
British people. solving problems, not
exploiting them. A serious and
comprehensive plan, not fantasy claims
based on sums that don't add up or
gimmicks that failed in the past. What
we will never do is seek to stir up
chaos, division, or hate
>> because that is not who we are as a
country, and that is not what Britain
stands for. a practical plan to
strengthen our border security, to fix
the asylum chaos, and to rebuild
confidence in an asylum and immigration
system that serves our national
interest, protects our national
security, and reflects our national
values. Because when we wave the Union
flag, when we wave the St. George's
flag. When we sing God Save the King and
celebrate everything that is great about
Britain and about our country, we do so
with pride because of the values that
our flags, our king and our country
represent. Togetherness, fairness and
decency. Respect for each other, respect
for the rule of law.
>> That is what our country stands for.
That is the British way to fix the
problems we face. And I commend this
statement to the House.