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Benefits: Non-British Citizens

My Lords, I appreciate the opportunity to share my concerns and anxieties regarding the well-being and survival of many who for different reasons find themselves here in the United Kingdom. When one looks at the turmoil which faces our own citizens, tremendous sympathy goes out to them. But that does not mean that at the same time we should not look wider to see what other problems there might be. Some in this country have entered illegally. I am not sure whether it is my Liberal heart or my Methodist heart that has great sympathy with them. Certainly, realistically, those who are here illegally should be returned home as gently and as swiftly as possible. Last year, I welcomed the announcement that we had halted any removals to Darfur, Zimbabwe and, as regards those of the gay community, to Iran, where they faced persecution. The condition of some of the people who come here illegally is numbing. In my own part of North Wales only a week or so ago, some such Chinese immigrants were found to be paid tiny wages and to be forced to sleep and rest in a disused restaurant refrigerator. Such circumstances cannot be tolerated: we think of the sacrifice that some of those folk have made just to come here, dreaming that the streets are paved with gold, when we know of our own experience that that is not so. The Minister might be kind enough to tell us how long people who have failed with their asylum claims have to wait to be returned home. Some of those people who have not succeeded have to be here for many months before a decision is made. How satisfactory is the present system? Is it causing added harm and cost to the United Kingdom? I want to applaud and pay tribute to places such as Harmondsworth, with their concerned and caring approach to those who have failed the asylum process. Others who come here are citizens of the European Community. They have every right to be here and most of them will make a success of their stay. A proportion of them—it could be anything; 5 per cent or 10 per cent—do not make a go of it. For those we have the gravest concern. May I say how much we appreciate the work that is already being done for them, especially by voluntary organisations? I visit the Dallow centre in Whitechapel and see what is happening there. I work with the Barka Foundation, taking those from Poland who have not made a success of it back home. I hear of the good work carried out by some local authorities. We appreciate the work that is being carried out. I suggest that in London we need the boroughs to work together in greater co-operation. We need a pan-London strategy. How can Her Majesty’s Government help in the present situation? It is untrue that migrant workers who arrive here can immediately draw benefits: they cannot. They have to join the workers’ registration scheme. They pay £90 and it is 12 months before they are able to access any UK benefits. Ninety pounds might be little for most of us but to them it could be a great deal of money. People who come here with £300 and think that that will be enough to see them through find that that charge is levied before they can start to take the work that will enable them to claim benefits later. Is it possible for us somehow to delay the charge payable by them until they have started working and have the extra money that enables them to pay that particular fee, or to pay by instalments? Furthermore, they have to have a national insurance number, which sometimes takes a long time. How can we speed up that process, giving everyone who wants to work here their national insurance number? When we debated the UK Borders Bill; now the UK Borders Act, I tried to persuade the Government to prepare and make available multilingual information packs that could be distributed in the villages and towns in which the folk who come to the UK live, advising them about the problems and opportunities and where help could be obtained. I wonder whether the Government could reconsider that point. In other countries there is an emergency telephone number for those at a loss. I was walking in Victoria Street a fortnight ago and a perfectly respectable person there had arrived from Lithuania who could not get a job. There was no work going. Such people find themselves with their pennies and hope gone. Could we have a government-sponsored or supported helpline for such people? I want to say how much we appreciate the work of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux. It does a tremendous job and we owe it a great debt. Last week I was so pleased that the Minister said we might look at the possibility with our European colleagues at having benefits that were paid in Poland and could be drawn from the Polish Exchequer here in the United Kingdom when people got into real need. Will the Government please explore that possibility? My colleague will speak about asylum seekers later. I want to point out that in 2007, nearly 50 per cent of all refused asylum seekers were from Zimbabwe, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Eritrea. Prior to a change in 2003, refused asylum seekers from those areas would almost certainly have been given exceptional leave to remain in the UK. That has been changed with remarkable consequences. We now have the humanitarian protection and discretionary leave categories. As a consequence, whereas 20,135 individuals obtained exceptional leave to remain in 2002, only 405 did in 2007. We would like to see some change there. In reviewing the treatment of asylum seekers in the UK, the Joint Committee on Human Rights recently reached the following conclusion: "““We have been persuaded by the evidence that the Government has indeed been practicing a deliberate policy of destitution of this highly vulnerable group. We believe that the deliberate use of inhumane treatment is unacceptable. We have seen instances in all cases where the Government's treatment of asylum seekers and refused asylum seekers falls below the requirements of the common law of humanity and of international human rights law””." Under Section 95, the asylum seeker has some payment and some way of supporting himself—although it is only 70 per cent of the social security benefit that UK residents would receive. However, that has changed and they can lose that and become totally destitute. Section 9 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004 would withdraw all benefits from failed asylum seekers. This drives them into destitution. We should look at this again. When the new immigration Bill comes before the House, we intend to table amendments that will delete that clause. In conclusion, the measures we take now are inhumane. They are against our ordinary traditions. The Joint Committee on Human Rights says: "““The policy of enforced destitution must cease. The system of asylum seeker support is in a confusing mess. We have seen no justification for providing varying standards of support and recommend the introduction of a coherent, unified, simplified and accessible system of support for asylum seekers, from arrival until””," they leave our shores, their voluntary departure. I urge the Government to look again, in a more humane way, at this legislation.