The 1951 Refugee Convention created an obligation on signatory states to provide refuge to anyone with a “well-founded fear of persecution”. In its original form it was confined only to those displaced prior to 1951, only to those living in continental Europe and only if their persecution was a result of religious discrimination. In other words, it was a direct response to the Holocaust. Although its scope was extended in the Sixties, every change has occurred in an era where international travel was rare and the mass migration flows of today were unthinkable.
Since then the UK has played a pivotal role in offering to asylum to those fleeing persecution. Since 2015, almost half a million people from Syria, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and most recently Ukraine have found safety in the UK.
Nothing about this Bill changes any of that. Indeed, critical to its success will be the new “safe and legal routes” which the Government has promised and which are referred in the Bill, which will increase access to refugees from other countries.
The purpose of the Bill is not to extinguish the right of any genuine asylum seeker but to stop the route to this country in small boats across the Channel.
It is worth considering some facts about this route. First, it has undergone an exponential rise in the last 5 years. In 2018, fewer than 300 individuals tried to enter this country in small boats. Last year, that number was 45,000 of which every single journey was facilitated by people smugglers. Of those, approximately 80% are males aged between 18 and 40, and last year one third (15,000) were from Albania (a safe European country).
Speaking to the Home Affairs Select Committee last year, Dan O’Mahony, the Clandestine Channel Threat Commander said of the Albanian arrivals: “The rise has been exponential. We think that is in the main due to the fact that Albanian criminal gangs have gained a foothold in the north of France and have been facilitating very large numbers of migrants… A lot of Albanian migrants are not interested in seeing their claim through. We will put them up in a hotel and then they will disappear into the underworld.”
To complicate matters, nearly all those arriving have no identification documents. As Mr. O’Mahoney put it: “Encouraged by facilitators, they will get rid of any sort of documentation, phones, SIM cards, anything, before they are intercepted by Border Force.” The smugglers encourage this because it means genuine asylum seekers become mixed-up with false ones, making verification slow, adding to backlogs and increasing the chances of everyone getting in.
The Bill is now beginning its journey through Parliament in which some of the issues, such as modern slavery, will be finessed. However, no responsible Government could tolerate a route so widely exploited by criminal gangs. If the Refugee Convention means anything, it means safeguarding routes for those in genuine need not those hoping to game the system.
Laura also spoke to Sky News about the Government's legislation, which you can watch here.