§ 33. Mr. Randallasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if his attention has been drawn to Recommendation 228 of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe relating to refugees; what proposals Her Majesty's Government have for implementing recommendation one; and what action is to be taken to encourage those Governments who have not ratified or acceded to the Agreement of 23rd November, 1957, relating to refugee seamen, to do so.
§ Mr. R. AllanYes, Sir. We have agreed, subject to the present examination of the individual cases, to accept for resettlement in this country all those Hungarian refugees in Austria who last year expressed to the United Nations High Commissioner their wish to come here.
Her Majesty's Government, as the hon. Gentleman knows, have ratified the Agreement relating to refugee seamen.
§ Mr. RandallI am obliged to the hon. Gentleman for his reply to the first part of my Question, but the latter part refers to refugee seamen. Is he aware that there are about 8,000 refugee seamen who are prisoners on their ships? Will he use his good offices to persuade the other two countries to sign the 1957 Agreement whereby travelling papers would be made available to these refugee seamen so that once again they would have citizenship rights?
§ Mr. AllanAs I said in my Answer, Her Majesty's Government have ratified the Agreement. As for getting other countries to do so, perhaps the hon. Gentleman's colleagues in the Council of Europe might press their own Governments to take the same action.
§ Mr. RandallAs a Recommendation of the Assembly will come before the Committee of Ministers, may I invite the hon. Gentleman to use his good offices to persuade the two countries who, although they drew up the original Agreement, so far have not signed it, to do so in order that it may apply to the 8,000 refugee seamen?