§ 11.22 a.m.
§ Lord MERRIVALEMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government how it is proposed in the future to issue consular visas in the Malagasy Republic, bearing in mind that receipts from visa fees in Tananarive totaled £2,423 for the past year 1974–75.
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, the largest proportion of visas issued by our Embassy in Tananarive were on behalf of independent Commonwealth countries not themselves represented in the Malagasy Republic. Alternative arrangements had been made to dispose of much of this work before we decided to close the Embassy. In future the honorary consul will forward applications for visas for the United Kingdom and dependent Territories for processing by the Office of the Non-Resident Ambassador. Visa fees will continue to be collected.
§ Lord MERRIVALEMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his reply. May 1 say that I know that visas were issued by the Embassy in Tananarive and that they were mainly for Commonwealth countries? They were issued by our consul there. However, how do Her Majesty's Government propose, for visas which were issued in Tananarive, to forward passports for visas to be issued, for instance, at Dar-es-Salaam and how do they propose to collect the fees for such visas?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, the fees will be collected at the office of the honorary consul. All the processing will be done by the accredited Embassy in some other country. The noble Lord has mentioned one possibility, but final agreement about it has not been reached. We are in discussion with the Malagasy Republic about the problem. As to his final point which related to countries of destination, perhaps the House will be interested to know that in 1973 some 3,200 visas were issued in Tananarive, of which 2,800 were for countries of destination in the independent Commonwealth.
§ Lord MERRIVALEMy Lords, does not the Minister agree that in future the issue of visas will be very complicated? What guarantee, too, has anybody who posts his passport that it will safely arrive in the country of destination? Does not the noble Lord feel that the question of a resident United Kingdom-based career consul should be looked into again?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, the impeccability of the post anywhere is not a matter about which I would freely generalise. There is the same risk, or the absence of risk, of anything happening to a passport or visa as there is in any other part of the world.