§ 2. Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list by country of origin the number of persons who have been refused visitor's status to date in 1983.
§ 13. Mr. Maddenasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons were granted visitor's status to the United Kingdom to date in 1983; and what was the figure for the comparable period of 1982.
§ Mr. WaddingtonIn the first nine months of 1983, 5.4 million passengers from outside the European Community were given admission and 10,625 passengers from all countries were refused leave to enter. I shall circulate in the Official Report details of the nationalities concerned. Separate information is not available as to the number of those refused who were seeking admission as visitors. In the same period, 4.1 million nationals of countries outside the European Community were admitted as visitors, compared with 3.6 million in the first nine months of 1982.
§ Mr. Carter-JonesWill the Minister express the figures for refusals as percentages by nationality and account for any discrepancies?
§ Mr. WaddingtonI am prepared to table a list of the kind requested by the hon. Gentleman. In general, there are very few refusals compared with the number of people seeking entry. Even for the Indian subcontinent, where pressures to come here are naturally far greater than in, say, America, because of the discrepancy in the standard of living, I believe that the rate of refusal last year was 0.5 per cent. or about 1,000 out of 200,000 of those coming here from India, with similar figures for other countries of the subcontinent.
§ Mr. BudgenIs my hon. and learned Friend aware that there will be widespread dismay at his statement yesterday that no further significant reduction in immigration can be expected, especially as the figure is now running at just under 29,000 per year? Will he give some partial reassurance by repeating the promise that he gave when the last set of immigration rules were passed, namely, that if the number of male fiancés seeking admission increases greatly the rules will be reviewed with a view to restricting the number?
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe number of people accepted from the world as a whole and from the New 972 Commonwealth has fallen significantly since the Government came to office in 1979, in pursuance of our declared aim of tightening the immigration rules. The point that I made at the Royal Commonwealth Society yesterday was that two thirds of the people now being accepted from the New Commonwealth are relatives of those already accepted for settlement. We must remember that the families of those settled before 1 January 1973 have a statutory right to come here. Moreover, Governments have given undertakings that families of men settled after that date will be allowed to enter.
On the second point, the undertaking given in February by my noble Friend Lord Whitelaw, as he now is, was that the rules would be re-examined to ensure that they continued to produce the full and fair immigration control to which we are committed.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I appeal for shorter supplementary questions and for shorter answers.
§ Mr. MaddenIs the Minister aware that all who are interested in these matters have detected a concerted effort in recent months to reduce the number of visitors given permission to enter this country? Will he deny that the immigration service has been given such advice through a series of nods and winks from the Department?
§ Mr. WaddingtonThat is utter rubbish. The hon. Gentleman should read the text of my reply. The number of people entering this country has risen since 1982. The number of refusals has risen in proportion.
§ Mr. Denis HowellIs the Minister aware that increasing distress is being caused to family visitors and is undermining good community relations? Does he appreciate that the phrases used by Ministers to justify their decisions—a letter to me recently stated that
there seems to be no good reason for this … family visit … at this time"—are not just an affront to basic ethical concepts of family life which are common to all religious belief in this country, but cause great distress to the people involved? Does he appreciate that the following quotation from a ministerial letter referring to a man with four children in Pakistan who wished to enter this country as a visitor,He would not appear to have sufficient incentive to return homeadds a poverty test to the racial test and is utterly unacceptable? Will he consider introducing a new system of guarantees for visitors by family and friends which will safeguard against improper entry, while maintaining the decencies of family life?
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe right hon. Gentleman and others, I fear, seem to have forgotten that Parliament approved new rules as recently as February this year. Those rules require immigration officers in Britain to be satisfied that a person seeking entry as a visitor is a genuine visitor. The point made in the letter about which the right hon. Gentleman complains is that among the factors which weighed in the immigration officer's mind before refusing entry was that there did not seem to be a good reason for that person to spend an enormous amount of money on a visit at that particular time.
§ Following are the details:
973| Passengers refused leave to enter the United Kingdom 1 January 1983–30 September 1983 | |
| Number of persons | |
| Commonwealth countries | |
| Associated states | 16 |
| Australia | 36 |
| Bangladesh | 232 |
| Barbados | 1 |
| Canada | 39 |
| Cyprus | 90 |
| Ghana | 787 |
| Gibraltar | 1 |
| Guyana | 15 |
| Hong Kong | 110 |
| India | 970 |
| Jamaica | 36 |
| Kenya | 71 |
| Malaysia | 83 |
| Malta | 18 |
| Mauritius | 57 |
| New Zealand | 15 |
| Nigeria | 1,410 |
| Sierra Leone | 30 |
| Singapore | 33 |
| Sri Lanka | 247 |
| Tanzania | 99 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 7 |
| Uganda | 40 |
| Zambia | 11 |
| Zimbabwe | 31 |
| United Kingdom Passport Holders | 44 |
| Other Commonwealth countries | 80 |
| Total Commonwealth | 4,609 |
| European Community | |
| Belgium | 11 |
| Denmark | 9 |
| France | 135 |
| Germany (Federal Republic) | 96 |
| Greece | 73 |
| Republic of Ireland | 1 |
| Italy | 92 |
| Netherlands | 86 |
| Total EC | 503 |
| Non-EC foreign countries | |
| Algeria | 415 |
| Arab Republic of Egypt | 48 |
| Argentina | 53 |
| Austria | 38 |
| Brazil | 49 |
| Bulgaria | 6 |
| Chile | 61 |
| China | 7 |
| Colombia | 127 |
| Cuba | 5 |
| Czechoslovakia | 10 |
| Ethiopia | 11 |
| Finland | 16 |
| German Democratic Republic | 5 |
| Hungary | 14 |
| Indonesia | 15 |
| Iran | 183 |
| Iraq | 64 |
| Israel | 79 |
| Japan | 51 |
| Jordan | 23 |
| Kuwait | 10 |
| Lebanon | 43 |
| Libya | 32 |
| Mexico | 19 |
| Morocco | 353 |
| Norway | 25 |
| Pakistan | 784 |
| Peru | 31 |
| Philippines | 63 |
| Number of persons | |
| Poland | 52 |
| Portugal | 138 |
| Romania | 12 |
| Saudi Arabia | 92 |
| Somalia | 1 |
| South Africa | 52 |
| Spain | 262 |
| Sudan | 31 |
| Sweden | 60 |
| Switzerland | 44 |
| Syria | 26 |
| Thailand | 54 |
| Tunisia | 105 |
| Turkey | 315 |
| United States of America | 425 |
| Union of Soviet Socialist Republics | 236 |
| Uruguay | 8 |
| Venezuela | 15 |
| Yugoslavia | 86 |
| Other foreign countries | 266 |
| Stateless | 593 |
| Total Non-EC foreign | 5,513 |
| Grand Total | 10,625 |