ILPA Briefing for House of Lords Committee Stage on the Immigration Bill 9 February 2016 More on Lord Dubs’ Refugee amendment and briefing on parts 6 to 8
Clarification from Amnesty International UK briefing:
One point of clarification. When the Minister said
“There is a day centre adjacent to [the Calais camp] where migrants living in the area can receive legal advice, including on family reunion. The rules on Dublin have been explained.”
We assumed he meant the centre from which lawyers are giving independent pro bono advice. Having had sight, however, of Amnesty International’s briefing which is about their visit to Calais, we now think that perhaps we were confused and that he was probably referring to the centre outside the camp where general information sessions are provided by French authorities. This is what Amnesty say:
On the previous day of Committee, the Minister referred to legal advice available at Calais:
“There is a day centre adjacent to [the Calais camp] where migrants living in the area can receive legal advice, including on family reunion. The rules on Dublin have been explained.”
That is an overly sanguine account of the situation in several respects. The centre to which the Minister refers hosts weekly information sessions provided by various of the French authorities. As we understand the position, those sessions are intended to explain to those who attend how to access the French asylum system. Whether the information touches on the Dublin III Regulations, there are a host of reasons why residents at the camps may have considerable doubts about any information offered about the possibility of family reunion in the UK. These include that residents are encouraged at these sessions to accept relocation away from Calais (i.e. away from any tentative support network they may have, as well as from the proximity of the port via which many hope to make the crossing themselves) to one of up to 100 separate locations. It is generally understood – and rightly so – that the number of transfer requests made by France to the UK under the family reunion provisions in these regulations is very small, and the number of requests accepted is tiny. Moreover, none of this relates to the separate or additional rights that some of these individuals may have – but cannot access – to seek family reunion on grounds separate or additional to those regulations.
There is an independent – volunteer-led and delivered – advice point in the camp at Calais. It operates from a wooden shack constructed by Carpenters without Borders, responding to an initiative by l’Appel des 800. However, conditions here are not conducive to taking full or adequate instructions, identifying possible legal solutions or delivering appropriate legal advice – let alone conducting a legal case. Among myriad problems is the absence of interpretation services (save for using friends and family from the camp) and lack of privacy. Volunteers are – so far as we were able to establish – only able to deliver a basic information service, possibly with some attempt to identify cases that will be complex but may have prospects for family reunion without any real capacity to pursue such cases. During the afternoon we spent there, we saw three small tables in the main room (there is a small antechamber) of the small shack around which were crowded several individuals receiving advice or information through the interpretation of family or friends and others huddled outside, occasionally over-spilling into an already overcrowded space. Here – as in so many other contexts at these camps, and indeed elsewhere in Europe – hard–pressed volunteers are struggling with great fortitude to deliver basics in the absence of any effective state or state-supported interventions.
Updated with additional resources:
The Committee on the 09 February 2016 covered the following matters from Part 6-8 of the Bill:
- Border Security
- Language Requirements for Public Sector Workers
- Fees and Charges: Immigration
- Fees and Charges: Passports and civil registration Link to the debates are added below.
Amendments that brought new matters were:
- Review of border security
- Obligation to provide information on passports
- Review of language requirements for public sector workers
- Tier 1 (Investor) visa
Link to the debate is added below, and amendments addressed are summarised in the Marshalled List below.
- Fifth Marshalled List of Amendments to be moved in Committee (05.02.16)
- Committee 5th sitting: House of Lords (09.02.16)
- Document Date
- 2016-02-06
- Issue Number
- 16.02.31816