HC Deb 17 June 1907 vol 176 c132
MR. LEVERTON HARRIS (Tower Hamlets, Stepney)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in view of the statement made before the Alien Immigration Board, on 10th June, that an agent in Austria is booking immigrants to England, and, in order to prevent their rejection, is providing them with American passports, and that these immigrants have no intention of proceeding beyond this country, it is proposed to take any steps to compel immigrants arriving in the United Kingdom to show a passport and to proceed to the destination indicated thereon.

(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) The case referred to was an attempt to pass into the United Kingdom, under pretence that they were going to America, two aliens who had no intention of going: there, and no means or prospects of maintaining themselves here. Any suggestion as to passports would seem to be due to misunderstanding. The Aliens Act affords a means of dealing with such a case, and in this instance the attempted evasion was detected and the two aliens were refused leave to land. I have under consideration the question of taking further steps in regard to the persons concerned in the case.