Iran

Lord Cashman Excerpts

Thursday 15th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right. There are many who have lived and worked here and been educated here, as he says. But it is not right that we encourage people to take dangerous journeys, and I know that is not what he would wish us to do. We do not have a formal safe route situation at the moment with regard to Iran, and we are not actually seeing large numbers of people fleeing the country at this stage. Obviously we will keep a close watch on this and, if we need to change stance, of course we can.

[Lord Cashman (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I reiterate the point that there are no safe, legal routes from Iran to reach this country. I urge the Minister to look sympathetically at this. No matter how somebody reaches the safety of the United Kingdom, if they are from Iran—and, I would argue, other countries, but in this instance we are talking about Iran—let us give them the gift of asylum and sanctuary and consider their claims.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

We do consider their claims. As the noble Lord says, there are several countries in the world where life is incredibly dangerous and people feel the need to seek refuge, sometimes in the United Kingdom. We will consider their claims fairly and in line with all our established decision-making. It is important to understand that this country takes seriously its responsibilities and its duty to provide asylum and protection to those in desperate need, but I do not want to say anything that could be interpreted as encouragement to people to fall into the arms of people traffickers or take those often deadly journeys, particularly across the sea.