§ The Minister for Citizenship and Immigration (Mr. Desmond Browne)I have today made an authorisation under section 19D of the Race Relations Act 1976, as amended, which will enable immigration officers to prioritise the examination of passengers of Somali national origin. For a period of three months this will allow such people to be examined more rigorously than would otherwise be the case.
The purpose of this measure is to enable the immigration service to obtain information on the number and profiles of Somali-born passengers entering the UK. The aim is to establish how many of in country asylum applicants claiming to be a Somali, apparently without documentation, enter the UK.
This authorisation extends one that was made by my predecessor as Minister for Immigration on 24 February this year.