HC Deb 29 March 1979 vol 965 cc612-4
15. Mr. Rhodes James

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will review the requirements for refugee visas from applicants in Argentina.

27. Mr. Flannery

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, in view of the great decrease in the number of refugees from Chile admitted to the United Kingdom in 1978, he will consider admitting more applicants who are in danger in Argentina.

Mr. John

We continue to consider applications from Argentina sympathetically, in the light of the policy with regard to the admission of refugees from Latin America which my right hon. Friend announced on 22 June last year. The number of applications has declined recently.

Our refugee programmes are kept under regular review, but I see no reason for a further revision of the criteria at present.

Mr. Rhodes James

I thank the Minister for that reply. Is he aware that the requirements for granting refugee visas from Argentina now include the names and addresses of relatives and friends of the applicant—information which could be highly dangerous to those relatives and friends? Will the Minister re-examine the Home Office regulations and requirements, because they affect the lives and future of many people?

Mr. John

Regulations are not involved. The requirements include the presence here of family or relatives. I shall examine the problem raised by the hon. Member.

Mr. Flannery

Will my hon. Friend accept my congratulations on the compassion shown in admitting refugees from Chile into Britain? Does he remember that I recently asked him a question and it was revealed that, possibly due to the good work on behalf of the Government, the numbers had declined? Does he agree that those regimes are terrible? Will be seriously consider increasing the number of refugees allowed in from Argentina, which we now realise has an even more terrible regime than that of Chile—bad as that regime continues to be?

Mr. John

As my right hon. Friend said on 22 June last year, applications will be received from those who show a genuine need for resettlement and who have ties with this country. The number of applications has declined. Unless we receive them we cannot entertain them.

Mr. Stanbrook

When will the Government come to a conclusion about the request of the United Kingdom representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that we should prepare a proper procedure and rules for the determination of the status of refugees?

Mr. John

The hon. Member is talking about the London representative of UNHCR. I am conducting a review of the procedures involved. We have no reason to be ashamed of our record on the receipt of refugees. It is a good record.

Mr. Alexander W. Lyon

Is there not a real anxiety about the arrangements that we have made in the Geneva convention which seem to leave a gap? Could not that gap be filled by a separate unit to assess whether a person is eligible within the convention to be a refugee? If a person is being persecuted in Argentina, although he went there from Chile, does he not fall within the meaning of the convention?

Mr. John

Yes. However, I do not agree that a third body to assess the criteria should supplant ministerial responsibility.