§ 2. Sir J. Langford-Holtasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons who have entered the United Kingdom illegally in the last two years have been allowed to remain under the amnesty; how many have been expelled at the latest available date; and whether he will now see that all other illegal immigrants are expelled.
§ Mr. Roy JenkinsThe hon. Member is misinformed about the extent of the amnesty that I announced on 11th April 1974. It applies only to Commonwealth citizens and citizens of Pakistan who entered the United Kingdom illegally before 1st January 1973 and who, as the law then stood, could not have been removed, and not to anyone who entered in the past two years. Those cases apart, it is the normal practice, in the absence of compelling reasons to the contrary, to send away all illegal entrants. From the beginning of 1974 up to the end of March this year, 333 illegal entrants were so dealt with.