To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to amend paragraph 339Q of the Immigration Rules, and the associated guidance, to maintain the option to apply for humanitarian protection following the revocation of The Refugee or Person in Need of International Protection (Qualification) Regulations 2006 under the Nationality and Borders Bill.
Answered on
15 March 2022
In February this year during the Committee Stage of the Nationality and Borders Bill in the House of Lords, Lord Wolfson of Tredegar QC confirmed the Government’s intention to reform the humanitarian protection route in the UK as part of the Government’s New Plan for Immigration.
Clause 29 of the Nationality and Borders Bill revokes the Refugee or Person in Need of International Protection (Qualification) Regulations 2006. Those are the regulations through which we transposed our obligations under the EU Qualification Directive 2004. This has created an opportunity for us to consider the operation of the route.
The reformed humanitarian protection route will reflect our current international obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, in particular Article 2 and Article 3, which the Government is committed to upholding. The entitlements afforded to recipients of humanitarian protection will also be amended to reflect changes being made elsewhere in the asylum system.
The relevant Immigration Rules and policy guidance will be updated to reflect the changes later this year.