§ Mr. Jeremy Corbyn (Islington, North)I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely,
the continued and unauthorised holding of 10 Mauritian citizens at Heathrow airport.This is a serious matter. On 12 April, a group of 10 Mauritian citizens arrived at Heathrow airport in transit with the intention of travelling on holiday to Europe. They had valid visas for all the countries that they proposed to visit. They were stopped at the airport by security staff. They were strip-searched and handed over to the immigration service. They were then delayed sufficiently so that their onward flight to Brussels had already left, and they were then placed in detention at Heathrow. At no stage were they applying for entry to the United Kingdom, yet their passports were stamped with the words, "Refused permission to enter the United Kingdom", and the immigration service decided to deport them back to Mauritius, even though they had been booked on an onward flight to Belgium.On Good Friday, the Mauritians' solicitor applied for a judicial review and was granted an injunction preventing their removal to Mauritius, but 15 days later they are still held at Harmondsworth detention centre. They have been refused permission to continue their holiday in Belgium, unauthorised stamps have been placed in their passports saying that they cannot he admitted to Britain—they never applied to come here — and their high commissioner, who has met Home Office and Foreign Office officials on the matter, has not received a satisfactory explanation of this serious state of affairs.
It is important for the House to debate the matter because those people are being wrongly held at the airport. No charge has been preferred against them, yet they have not been allowed to go free. It calls into question the activities and behaviour of the Home Office and the immigration service, in respect not just of this matter but of other matters. It is incumbent upon a Home Office Minister to make a statement to the House about what is happening at Heathrow airport, and it is important for the House to discuss this serious matter.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member asks leave to move the Adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that he believes should have urgent consideration, namely,
the continued and unauthorised holding of 10 Mauritian citizens at Heathrow airport.Again, I have listened with concern to what the hon. Gentleman said, but I regret that I do not consider the matter which he has raised to be appropriate for discussion under Standing Order No. 20 and I cannot, therefore, submit his application to the House.