§ Mr. Fauldsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make available the latest comparative figures of the number of visas issued for Chileans fleeing the oppressive regime in their country under the scheme set up in 1974, and for Argentinians fleeing the oppressive regime in Argentina.
§ Mr. JohnUp to 30th June last, 1,710 applications involving 4,462 people to come to the United Kingdom as refugees from the present Chilean regime had been granted.
Up to the same date, 214 applications involving 654 people had been granted in respect of refugees from the present regime in Argentina. Of these, 11 cases (14 people) were in respect of Argentinian nationals, and 183 (600 people) were in respect of refugees from the Chilean regime included in the figures above.
§ Mr. Fauldsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) why there has been such a prolonged delay in announcing a visa programme for Argentinian political refugees similar to the scheme set up in 1974 for Chilean political refugees;
(2) when he intends to complete the review of the establishment of a visa programme, similar to that available to Chilean political refugees, for those fleeing the repressive policies of the Argentinian regime.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesI announced the outcome of the review of our policy on the admission of refugees from Latin America in the reply I gave to a Question by my hon. Friend the Member for Fife, Central (Mr. Hamilton) on 22nd June—[Vol. 952, c.268–9.] The review took longer than I had hoped, but there was no interruption of the scheme for Chilean refugees and we continued to consider applications from people in special danger in Argentina, although we had already accepted more than the 75 we had agreed 131W to receive in response to the appeal of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.