§ Mrs Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many visitors from the Indian subcontinent have arrived in the United Kingdom in each of the last five years; what proportion of them were refused leave to enter; and how many immigration personnel have been employed to administer these entries each year during the same period.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe number of visitors admitted and the total number of passengers refused entry in 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984 have been published by nationality in table 1 of the annual publication "Control of Immigration: Statistics, United Kingdom" (Cmnd. 8533, 8944, 9246 and 9544 respectively). That statistics on refusals do not distinguish passengers seeking entry as visitors. Figures for the whole of 1985 are not yet available, but during the first six months of the year 188,000 nationals of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan were admitted, 120,000 of whom were visitors. In the same period 1,770 were removed after having been refused entry.
Individual immigration officers at ports of entry interview a wide range of passengers of various nationalities. It is consequently not possible to estimate the time taken up by the nationals of particular countries.