§ Miss Richardsonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, further to his statement that the refusal rate of passengers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1977 was substantially lower than the refusal rate from a number of other countries, what is the refusal rate separately for India, for Pakistan and for Bangladesh, the refusals rates for each of those countries for which it is higher, and the refusal rate for Australia, for Canada, for New Zealand and for the United States of America; what is the estimated proportion of visitors from each of the countries referred to above who applied for entry clearance overseas in 1977; and what is the number of applications for entry clearance as visitors 679W made in India, in Pakistan and in Bangladesh, and the proportion refused, in 1977 or for whatever period such information can be obtained.
§ Mr. JohnNumbers of passengers admitted and refused entry is published annually by citizenship and nationally in"Control of Immigration Statistics"(Tables 1(a) and 1(b) of Cmnd. 7160 for 1977.) The refusal rates for the countries specified are given in the following table.
County issuing passport Percentage of passengers refused leave to enter in 1977 Bangladesh 1.5 India 0.5 Pakistan 1.1 Algeria 2.6 Turkey 0.8 Ghana 1.5 Cyprus 1.1 Morocco 1.9 Stateless citizens 0.9 Australia 0.02 Canada 0.02 New Zealand 0.02 United States of America 0.02 Information is not available centrally for estimates to be made of the proportion of visitors from each of these countries who applied for entry clearance overseas.
The number of applications in 1977 in the Indian Sub-continent for entry clearance as visitors was about 1,600 in Bangladesh, 14,300 in India and 3,500 in Pakistan. Of the applications for entry clearance as visitors concluded in 1977, in Bangladesh 2.1 per cent. were refused, in India 6.4 per cent. were refused and in Pakistan 16 per cent. were refused.