Downing Street Says » Migration/PM’s Speech

Asked about the Prime Minister’s ‘top to bottom’ review of the Government’s policy on asylum and immigration, the PMOS said that it was part of the constant process of looking to see what improvements could be made. Under both Jack Straw and David Blunkett many improvements had been made to the Immigration Service. We had also seen action in France in terms of putting immigration officers on the continent and we had also tightened up the system in the UK. All these were substantial steps. Equally, we recognised that, as and when substantial abuses were discovered, they should be tackled. However, as the Prime Minister had said today, those abuses should not be allowed to cloud the very real advantages to the UK of controlled migration and the way in which it met the needs of our growing economy.

Put to him that the review was ‘slightly late in the day’ in the light of the fact that 1 May was this Saturday, the PMOS pointed out that the review had been an ongoing project for many years. It was not starting today. These were not panic measures. They were part of an ongoing process. Asked if the Prime Minister believed that the UN Convention on Refugees should be reviewed, the PMOS said that this was no doubt an issue which would be discussed with other members of the UN, as it was not something on which we could take unilateral action.

Asked if today was the first time the Prime Minister had said that expressing concern about abuse of the asylum and immigration system was not racist, the PMOS said the Prime Minister had always recognised that there were legitimate concerns around migration issues – hence the way in which we had addressed concerns about asylum applications recently, for example, which had resulted in the number being halved over the last eighteen months. Equally, he had always believed that it was an issue which had to be handled with sensitivity, for obvious reasons. Clearly it was important to get that balance right. Put to him that abuse of the asylum and immigration system went wider than this Saturday and the EU accession countries, the PMOS said that the process of addressing the asylum applications issue and abuses within the system obviously went wider than Saturday. It was an ongoing process. However, we also had to bear in mind the real advantages which migration brought to this country and the real disadvantages were that to be stopped.

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» Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Migration/PM’s Speech

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