§ Mr. Martyn JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make it his policy to adopt a code of practice as proposed by Amnesty International for fair treatment of refugees in the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. RentonI shall shortly be meeting Amnesty International to discuss its proposals in detail. I have already confirmed to it that many of the proposals in the code of practice represent existing Home Office practice. The Government cannot, however, accept the principal proposal that there should be an in-country right of appeal for all applicants: as the evidence of other countries demonstrates, such a right would be likely to encourage abuse of our asylum procedures.