Mr. Patrick Corrigan:

I am not sure that I am able to answer all of those satisfactorily, to be honest. With regard to Labour, we know it has made a commitment to repeal the legacy Act, which is very welcome. As far as I am aware, they have not made any such commitment around this piece of legislation. They seem to have been hedging their bets quite a lot around the issue of immigration policy. Disappointingly, they are perhaps erring on the side of caution around too many policies and trying to tack very closely to the UK Government. They almost just criticise the UK Government for not stopping the boats more effectively, rather than saying that the “stopping the boats” rhetoric and policy is a nonsense and that we have to have a humane international protection policy in line with our international commitments. The comments from the shadow home secretary have been cautious, or let us put it like that.

We in Amnesty continue to engage with the UK Labour front bench as well as officials and MPs in the party to talk about what will be in its manifesto and what sort of commitments and programme for government it would bring forward if it were to be successful in the next general election in the UK. The only way I can honestly answer that is to say the jury is still out. We would like to see the party take a stronger, diverging policy than the current government.

On cross-Border traffic and the Border checks on people, while not routine we know it happens and there are regular reports of people being stopped on buses and trains crossing the Border and people being asked for our paperwork. At least anecdotally the evidence is it is people of colour who seem to be singled out for particular scrutiny of their paperwork. There has not been any comprehensive research into that and we have to rely on anecdotal evidence. The committee has had prior engagement with them, but it may be helpful for the committee to talk to colleagues in the Committee on the Administration of Justice, the North West Migrants Forum and others who are paying particular attention to that and are concerned about what they are calling a racist hard border emerging in Ireland. These checks pre-exist Brexit. This has been around for a long time. Countries have a right to set their own immigration policy and determine who can enter the country, but there are particular issues of concern around the Border in Ireland, keeping it open and keeping it clear for people to move freely. A question could be put back to the Irish Government on its position on this and if it is a matter of concern for it.