Labour peer apologises for suggesting asylum seekers should be 'concentrated' in camps

Admiral Lord West was a Home Office minister under the last Labour government

Policy Correspondent

Sunday 11 October 2020 17:03

People crossing the English channel on an inflatable boat near Dover

(Getty Images)

A Labour peer has apologised for suggesting that asylum seekers should be "concentrated" in camps as a solution to the refugee issue

Admiral Lord West, who was a Home Office minister under the last Labour government, made the "inhumane" suggestion in an interview with the BBC.

Speaking on Sunday morning he said people arriving across the Channel in small boats should be put in "a concentrated place, whether it's a camp or whatever".

The comments prompted outrage, with Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael telling The Independent that the peer should instead be joining "calls for safe and legal routes to sanctuary for refugees".

Mr Carmichael added that the comments were a good demonstration of "why being a retired Admiral is not, in itself, a basis on which someone should be appointed to take a seat in parliament".

The Labour peer had suggested that the "concentrated" camp might be a good place to hold migrants and asylum seekers until the UK could secure "agreement from France and other European nations to take them back.

Approached about the comments, Lord West said: “I am sorry for my choice of words and the confusion caused. I was trying to get across the point that working with other EU nations will help resolve this.”

Commenting on the incident, a Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Labour Party is clear that all people should be treated with humanity, compassion and respect.”

Home Secretary Priti Patel has taken a hard line on refugees crossing the channel in recent months, suggesting she would call in the Royal Navy to intercept boats.

Refugee crisis - in pictures

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1/27Refugee crisis - in pictures

A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016.

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Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea

Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016.

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Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border

Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia.

A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece.

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A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany

Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees

A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district

Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast.

A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos

A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said

Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year

The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos

Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija

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A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija

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Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos

Reuters

An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey

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A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos

EPA

A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey

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Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija

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People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija

AP

Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day

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An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France

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A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea

EPA

Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey

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Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

A string of reports apparently based on links from the Home Office show Ms Patel has apparently been considering increasingly outlandish schemes to deal with the issue, including setting up an offshore detention centre on a remote south Atlantic island.

Labour leader Keir Starmer pledged in his leadership campaign earlier this year that if he comes to power he will close immigration detention centres like Yarl’s Wood.

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