§ 4. Mr. Julian Brazier (Canterbury)What progress has been made on determining the asylum applications of persons who arrived on the hijacked Afghan airliner. [126120]
§ Mr. StrawA total of 33 applicants have so far been refused asylum. Thirty-two appeals were lodged, one of which has since been withdrawn. The remaining 31 are being heard by a panel of special adjudicators from the immigration appellate authority, but none have been determined yet. So far, three applicants have been granted asylum. Fifteen applications remain, relating either to 647 those currently subject to criminal proceedings following the hijacking or to their relatives, and cannot be determined until the conclusion of those proceedings.
§ Mr. BrazierIs there not a certain contrast between, on the one hand, the forthright and determined statements that the Home Secretary made all those months ago about speedily ejecting those people and, on the other, the rather sorry answer that he has just given? Can there possibly be a clearer indication of the extent to which this country is seen as a soft touch for asylum seekers than the news in the Sunday papers that another group of Afghans is now planning to do the same thing?
§ Mr. StrawThe hon. Gentleman has plainly not read what I said on 10 February 2000. The consequence of our firm but fair approach to the hijacking in February is that just under half of all those who were on the aeroplane have now returned. It was always understood, and I made it clear to the House in my statement on 10 February, that some of those—as it turns out, about half—would be likely to apply for asylum, and those applications have to be processed. I took the exceptional measure of making the decisions about those applications personally in the first instance, and I made most of those decisions, but not all, very quickly. The applicants now have a right of appeal. If the hon. Gentleman or his Front-Bench colleagues are suggesting that we should withdraw altogether from the 1951 refugee convention or give people no right of appeal, we ought to hear from them.