Asylum reforms suffer setback

The government still wants to press ahead with reforms

The government has suffered a third defeat on its flagship Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill.

The Lords rejected proposals to deport asylum seekers who have been given a prison sentence of two or more years for crimes committed in Britain or overseas.

Blunkett says there must be confidence in the asylum system

Home Office sources say the Home Secretary David Blunkett is "personally very concerned" about the matter.

Under current rules, which the government wants to scrap, a UN convention offers protection against deportation to refugees given a custodial sentence of two years or more.

Mr Blunkett believes the Lords' amendment will prevent the deportation of people convicted of serious crimes such as child abduction and violent disorder.

The Lords backed moves making it harder for convicted criminal asylum seekers to be deported, with a vote of 77 to 71.

Their decision came despite junior Home Office Minister Lord Filkin asserting that schemes operated in Germany and the United States to remove protection from deportation for convicts.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The government believes there is simply no place in the UK for refugees and asylum seekers who abuse our protection and trust by committing serious criminal offences.

Small towns' struggle

Ahead of this defeat, the Lords opposed proposals for accommodation centres for asylum seekers and plans to educate their children in segregated schools.

Conservative peers, backed by the Liberal Democrats, challenged the government on the proposed sites of the centres, on the vetting of staff who work there and on the length of time it takes to process applications.

And even some senior Labour supporters argued small towns and villages such as Throckmorton, Worcestershire, and Bicester, Oxfordshire, could not cope with frightened, confused and traumatised asylum seekers.

Home Office 'undeterred'

The vote means the Nationality, Asylum and Immigration Bill must return to the House of Commons for further debate.

The Home Office made clear that it would not allow peers to "derail" the legislation, which must clear both Houses before the current session ends in November if it is to become law.

Opposition peers have already reacted with fury to Home Office plans to add more measures to the nationality bill next week.

Reducing 'pull factors'

Those changes are aimed primarily at reducing the factors that attract asylum seekers to the UK specifically.

Under the plans, the 10 countries waiting to join the European Union - including the Czech Republic and Poland - would be placed on a "white list" of safe states from which asylum claims are presumed to be unfounded.

At the same time, the UK would start accepting refugees who claim asylum while still abroad through a scheme operated by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

And there will be new schemes allowing people to come to the UK for jobs on a legal basis.

Mr Blunkett acknowledges the plans themselves will provoke criticism but insists establishing confidence in the asylum system is crucial to defeating the challenge of far-right groups.