Member

I turn to new clauses 22 and 35 on safe routes and humanitarian visas. As things stand, desperate people choose unsafe journeys to uncertain destinations, delivered by those who care nothing for their welfare and who continue to cash in while people continue to die in terror in the Mediterranean and in the channel. For people escaping tragedy and terror in Eritrea, Sudan and elsewhere who have passed through the lawless horror that is Libya and have crossed the Mediterranean, the channel holds fewer fears than it would do for the likes of us, so we need an intervention that will change people’s decisions. New clause 35 suggests a pilot visa scheme to authorise people who meet the criteria to travel to the United Kingdom safely in order to claim asylum. The proposal would mean a controlled, ordered, planned, dignified and humane process.