Member

The noble Baroness fetishises the 1951 refugee convention. It was brought into being for the right reason: the world had to make amends, in a practical way, for the horror and the deaths of millions in the Second World War, particularly in the Holocaust— I understand that. Now, in the era of transnational travel, telephonic communications, the internet, advances in science and technology and transportation, and serious organised crime and people traffickers, it is not fit for purpose. It is not ignoble for us to make that point. It is incumbent on the noble Baroness to be able to, realistically and with evidence, disaggregate between those who are genuine asylum seekers, fleeing from terror, dictators, torture, imprisonment and arbitrary justice, and those who are economic migrants. The noble Baroness, and in particular the Liberal Democrats, are not willing to disaggregate in that way.