On 8th March 2022, the House of Lords debated amendments to the Nationality and Borders Bill in its third day of the Report stage. Votes were held on several amendments, in which Bishops took part.
Votes: Nationality and Borders Bill
Tag: migration
Nationality and Borders Bill: Bishop of Durham speaks in favour of greater protection for children and vulnerable groups
On 2nd March 2022, the House of Lords debated the Nationality and Borders Bill in the second day of the report stage. The Bishop of Durham spoke on several amendments to the bill, including:
- Amendment 35, which would prevent offshoring of asylum seekers
- Amendments 40-45, moved by the Bishop of Durham on behalf of the Bishop of Gloucester, which relate to the standard of proof applied to vulnerable people seeking asylum
- Amendments 48 & 49, which would promote more safe routes for asylum seekers and targets for resettlement
The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, in rising to support Amendment 35 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope, to which I have added my name, I declare my interests in relation to both RAMP and Reset and set out in the register. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Stroud, for the way she introduced this amendment, and I fully support all her points.
I set out my reasons for supporting this amendment in Committee. However, a significant concern for me now is that the Minister was not able to give assurance that children in families would be excluded from offshoring, nor that families would not be split up in the process. This is deeply concerning. I appreciate that the policy document of 25 February sets out that exemptions will depend on the country where people are being offshored and tat publicising exemptions will fuel the movement of the most vulnerable not subject to offshoring.
However, I would set out that, for children, onward movement to any country after an often traumatic journey to the UK, in addition to the trauma in their country of origin, is simply never in their best interests. All the concerns I set out in my Committee speech regarding the monitoring of the practice of offshoring processing centres are especially true for children.
Continue reading “Nationality and Borders Bill: Bishop of Durham speaks in favour of greater protection for children and vulnerable groups”Votes: Nationality and Borders Bill 2022
On 2nd March 2022, the House of Lords debated the Nationality and Borders Bill in its second day of the report stage. Votes were held on amendments to the bill, in which Bishops took part.
Bishop of Coventry asks about UK participation in European crisis-talks on migration
The Bishop of Coventry asked a question urging the government to commit to participation in European crisis talks on migration on 25th November 2021, following a government statement on the recent deaths of migrants crossing the English Channel:
The Lord Bishop of Coventry: My Lords, the sense of grief that has been hanging over this House for most of the afternoon is testimony to our sense of common humanity. I assure the families of those who died—whoever and wherever they are—of the prayers of this Bench, and I am sure that many other prayers have been offered around your Lordships’ House. We have heard, quite rightly, from the Minister, echoing the Home Secretary, that this requires a co-ordinated international effort. It also clearly has a European dimension. Can the Minister confirm that if, as the French President has suggested, high-level European crisis talks take place on migration, the UK will take a full part and even encourage those conversations to happen?
Continue reading “Bishop of Coventry asks about UK participation in European crisis-talks on migration”Bishop of Durham asks about impact of immigration and asylum policies on children and families
The Bishop of Durham received the following written answers on 22nd November 2021:
The Lord Bishop of Durham asked Her Majesty’s Government:
- whether family reunion rights will be restricted for all group 2 refugees as a result of the proposed changes to the law in the Nationality and Borders Bill.
- assessment they have made of the impact of the proposed changes to family reunion rights in the Nationality and Borders Bill on the number of (1) men, (2) women, and (3) children, who will come to the UK via family reunion; whether they expect the number of such people to be lower than in previous years; and if so, by how many.
Bishop of Durham asks about use of Napier Barracks as asylum accomodation
The Bishop of Durham received the following written answer on 17th November 2021:
The Lord Bishop of Durham asked Her Majesty’s Government what is the definition of an accommodation centre applied by the Home Office; and what are the reasons Napier Barracks is not classified as such.
Continue reading “Bishop of Durham asks about use of Napier Barracks as asylum accomodation”Bishop of Durham asks about immigration and resettlement
The Bishop of Durham received the following written answers on 21st July 2021:
The Lord Bishop of Durham asked Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of people likely to be resettled this year under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme; and how that figure compares to (1) 2018, and (2) 2019.
Continue reading “Bishop of Durham asks about immigration and resettlement”Bishop of Southwark asks about immigration of EU and Hong Kong nationals to the UK
The Bishop of Southwark received the following written answers on 21st June 2021:
The Lord Bishop of Southwark asked Her Majesty’s Government:
- what assessment they have made of the increase in the number of EU citizens refused entry to the UK in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.
- how many EU citizens were detained on entry to the UK in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020; and what guidance they issue to immigration staff on making decisions about detention on entry.
Bishop of St Albans asks about migration statistics for those with British National (Overseas) status
The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 25th March 2021:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked Her Majesty’s Government how many people accessed the British National (Overseas) visa scheme within its first month.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about migration statistics for those with British National (Overseas) status”Domestic Abuse Bill: Bishop of London speaks in favour of amendment on protection for migrant women
The Bishop of London spoke in favour of an amendment to the Domestic Abuse Bill focused on protections for migrant women reporting domestic abuse on 15th March 2021:
The Lord Bishop of London [V]: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, for her work on this amendment. It is also a pleasure to follow the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss.
Amendment 67, to which I give my support, speaks to an underlying issue with several amendments that concern migrant women: namely, the balance between the Home Office’s commitment to immigration enforcement and the support of victims, which is too often weighted too heavily towards the former. From my own work exploring how varying circumstances, such as migration, affect one’s health outcomes, I hear far too often of victims of crime too nervous to come forward to the police for fear that, rather than receiving the help and support that they need, they will instead find themselves indefinitely detained, split from children and families and deported. The result is that they simply do not come forward, for fear is weaponised by abusers to prevent their victims escaping. This is all too common.
Continue reading “Domestic Abuse Bill: Bishop of London speaks in favour of amendment on protection for migrant women”
The Church of England in Parliament 
You must be logged in to post a comment.