Clause 8 - Immigration officer: power of arrest
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill
3:00 pm
Mr Edward Garnier (Harborough, Conservative)
It is not for me to do the Government's job, and I will probably do it wrong anyway. It is not difficult to think of people presenting themselves at the first point of entry to this county who might have committed theft or obtained property by deception. There are plenty of passport scams and plenty of people travelling on stolen passports who might have stolen an official stamp and who could be caught by this part of the clause. I appreciate that there will not be a great number, as the hon. Gentleman admitted, but nevertheless to remove all these provisions would open up quite a large hole in our bulwark against illegal immigrants. Subsection (1) says:
''Where an immigration officer . . . forms a reasonable suspicion that a person has committed or attempted to commit an offence''.
That is not restricted to asylum seekers.