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Asylum Seekers

This will be the last debate in Westminster Hall before Parliament rises for the Christmas recess. All over the Palace of Westminster, hon. Members, staff and Officers of the House are getting ready to depart to spend Christmas with their communities and families. It is probably appropriate, as we are in the Christmas season, for the House of Commons to spend just a few minutes debating a group of people for whom there is absolutely no room at the inn—failed asylum seekers. Let me begin by saying that I bow to no one in my support for the Government's policy of firm but fair immigration control. I do not approach the issue from a theoretical point of view. As my hon. Friend the Minister will know, I am probably in the top 10 of Members of Parliament for dealing with immigration cases. I am supported by an excellent senior caseworker and his devoted team of volunteers. Because I have done so much immigration casework in my 20 years in Parliament, I take very seriously the issues that the Government are trying to deal with. None the less, precisely because failed asylum seekers are so marginal and because there can be no group of people for whom there is less public sympathy, I think that it is important, as a test of the Government's commitment to human rights, to spend a little time examining some of the allegations of abuse of failed asylum seekers during deportation. I want to draw a number of issues to the attention of Ministers and other hon. Members. The first is the use of private security companies to carry out the work. I do not think that that is appropriate and I believe that there is some relationship between under-trained, underpaid private security personnel and some of the alleged abuses. Another of my concerns relates to the Government targets for forced repatriations. I understand the point of those targets. None the less, a target-driven culture is a culture in which perhaps some of the personnel carrying out the work are inclined to cut corners. The substantive issues are the allegations of physical abuse, which I will detail later, and the allegations of racist abuse. Ministers will be aware that airlines are very reluctant to be involved in these deportations. One airline, XL Airways, has bowed out of the Home Office contract altogether because it has been so horrified by some of the incidents on its planes. Let me say at the beginning that it is difficult to be specific about the scale of the problems, because it is in the nature of things that many of the people abused will have returned home and are unable to bring complaints against the Home Office. It is also difficult for them to take legal action after assaults, partly because they may have returned home, but also because of the lack of police investigations, an ineffective complaints procedure, the way in which they are treated when they lodge a complaint, and the problems that asylum rights groups have when compiling information. I regret that the recommendations of the Government's own complaints audit committee on this matter have not been implemented.