HC Deb 19 July 2002 vol 389 cc685-6W
Tim Loughton

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many British immigration officers are based at Prague airport; and what plans he has to increase this number. [71102]

Beverley Hughes

[holding answer 18 July 2002]: There are no British Immigration Officers based permanently at Prague airport.

A bilateral agreement reached with the Czech government in February 2001 allows passengers travelling from the Czech Republic to the United Kingdom to be pre-cleared before their arrival in the United Kingdom.

Under the terms of the agreement a team of 12 British immigration officers, attached to our Embassy in Prague as consular officials, operate a pre-clearance control at Prague airport.

Pre-clearance operations in Prague are intended to be a short term and flexibly applied response, dependant on the number of inadmissible passengers arriving in the United Kingdom and are therefore re-introduced when operational pressures necessitate. The operation has been implemented on 12 occasions in total.

There are no plans at present to increase the size of the team.