Clause 25
Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [Lords]
5:15 pm
Damian Green (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Ashford, Conservative)
I want to pick up one point made by the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington about the use of holding facilities. Can the Minister clarify at how many different ports and airports such facilities as could reasonably hold someone for up to seven days are available? I ask because I recently visited Dover, where there is a brand new suite of interviewing facilities. I am sure that the Minister has visited it as well—he probably opened it. That suite is state of the art, but even Dover—unless elsewhere in the port—did not appear to have the facilities to hold people for a long period. From my visits, I am conscious that one possibly could at Heathrow.
That would be useful to know, in particular in an era when we can expect that increasing numbers of those seeking to enter the country illegally, possibly serious criminals or even terrorists, will seek out routes into this country that are not the obvious ones—not the big ports and airports. Possibly, we shall need to have decent holding facilities—both secure and decent for people to be held in—at more places than just the big, obvious airports or ports.
It would be helpful to the Committee to know what state we are in at the moment. Is it just Heathrow—possibly not even Dover—where that can be done? Or are such facilities more widespread?