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Entry Clearance Procedures
15. Mr. Rendel: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans he has to improve the entry clearance procedures for the issue by United Kingdom embassies abroad of visas to foreign visitors. [12357]
Mr. Hanley: Our entry clearance operations overseas are constantly under review to ensure that a high standard of service at all posts is maintained and to make improvements whenever and wherever possible.
Mr. Rendel: The embassy in Moscow asks visa applicants to stay in the street or courtyard outside sometimes for up to a week in sub-zero temperatures. Does the Minister agree that that compares unfavourably with some of our European neighbours, who run an appointment system, which seems a much more civilised way of running a visa application system?
Mr. Hanley: I am aware of the problems at our embassy in Moscow. The week before Christmas I went to Moscow specifically to see the visa operation and authorise alterations which are currently taking place to accommodate people who previously had to wait in the open air. I hope that they will now be under cover. A new visa section, possibly five years down the line, will provide much better accommodation for them.
The main problem in Moscow is the extremely high demand. It has increased by some 300 per cent. in the past three years alone. I understand what the hon. Gentleman says. The conditions in all our embassies should be acceptable to our customers. We believe that they deserve the very best service and that we are achieving that.
Mr. Harry Greenway:
Does my right hon. Friend accept that while everyone understands the difficult nature of the work of the immigration authorities he should take note of the difficulties that some people in many parts of the world who may travel hundreds, or even thousands, of miles to present their cases for visas only to fail to get past the door because they are told there that their case
Mr. Hanley:
My hon. Friend is right that people often have to make long journeys to have interviews, but we accept written applications and give general guidance, which is not binding but merely tries to be helpful, so that people can decide whether they should take the sort of journey that he mentioned. To put into context the scale of the operation, in the last year for which we have figures, 1994, there were some 20.6 million visits to the United Kingdom. There were 1.32 million applications for visas. Just under 1 million short-term visas were granted. The refusal rate is small compared with the number of visitors who come to our shores. We must ensure that people do not spend time or money, or suffer inconvenience or severe trouble, in getting to a particular post. We must try to ensure that we reduce that problem. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his suggestion.
Mr. Gerrard:
Surely the Minister will accept the point that has just been raised that it is not right for people to be told unofficially that their applications will be refused? Those people do not turn up in the refusal statistics. There is no mechanism for appeal now and the only way that such cases come to light is if those people have relatives in this country who contact hon. Members. People ought to have the right to apply and not to be put off by an official from so doing.
Mr. Hanley:
The hon. Gentleman is saying that we should not give guidance to try to help people to reduce the cost and time that they might otherwise experience. He gave the impression that visas are issued only if people contact hon. Members. There were 6,000 contacts with Members of the House last year. We take all the evidence into account before deciding whether a person's visa application is accepted or rejected. It is not right to say that we should not give general guidance, which is a most helpful procedure and welcomed by the majority of people who ask for it.
Mr. Congdon:
Does my right hon. Friend agree that many of my constituents suffer disappointment when visa applications for their relatives or parents to visit this country, when they come from Africa or Asia, are turned down? Does he agree that people who get visitor's visas to come to this country and overstay their welcome or disappear do a grave disservice to their fellow countrymen and women because they make the decision-making process that much more difficult for Foreign Office staff?
Mr. Hanley:
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The entry clearance officers, who do a superb job in posts abroad, are trained to a level to which they have never been trained before. They take on their tasks often in difficult circumstances and uncomfortable surroundings very willingly and they try to be as honourable and accurate as they possibly can. Of course there will be certain people who are disappointed, but I can assure my hon. Friend that entry clearance officers use the very best judgment. The entry clearance manager checks all rejections and Dame Elizabeth Anson then considers a scientifically selected random number of rejections to make sure that they are properly carried out.
Middle East Peace Process
16. Mrs. Bridget Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has received concerning the middle east peace process. [12358]
19. Mr. Ernie Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the middle east peace process. [12361]
Mr. Hanley: I refer the hon. Lady to the answers that I and my right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary gave earlier.
Mrs. Prentice: I appreciate the answers that the Foreign Secretary has given already, but does he agree that both Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat deserve great praise for the continuation of the peace process? Does he share our concern about the shootings of Palestinian children by an Israeli settler at the weekend and will he do all that he can to urge both sides to do what they can to prevent any continuation of such violence?
Mr. Hanley: I thank the hon. Lady for joining in the tributes to Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. They have been not only honourable but courageous. I would add into that group Yasser Arafat, whose courage is certainly there for all to see. Of course we condemn utterly the violence to which the hon. Lady referred. She is right to be concerned about any continuing violence. Of course it does not help the peace process and, in individual cases, it is a tragedy.
Mr. Ross: Does the Minister share Labour Members' concern about the progress of the Syrian-Israeli and the Lebanese-Israeli peace talks? Will he remind all the parties to those peace talks that the Madrid initiative was called on a land-for-peace basis, which was the platform on which the Israeli Government stood in the elections? In relation to land for peace, will he remind all parties that they should not seek to make any security, geographical or economical gains at the expense of other parties?
Mr. Hanley: I can do no better than refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer that my right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary gave earlier about the Syrian track. Of course negotiations will have to take place, and compromises may well be necessary which are uncomfortable for one side or the other. However, I believe that good will on both sides can achieve a lasting peace in the middle east.
International War Crimes Tribunal
17. Dr. Godman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the progress of the work of the international war crimes tribunal for the former Republic of Yugoslavia. [12359]
Sir Nicholas Bonsor: As my right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary has told the House, 45 Serbs and seven Croats have been indicted so far. The first trial
of the war crimes tribunal will take place against Dusko Tadic, a guard in the Omarska prisoner of war camp, and has been set for 18 March.
Dr. Godman: Will the Minister confirm that under the terms of the Dayton agreement, all parties will have to co-operate with the tribunal? What if the parties refuse to honour those obligations? Can the Minister say, for example, that sanctions will be imposed against states that give refuge to criminals who have been indicted for crimes in the former republic?
Sir Nicholas Bonsor: As the hon. Gentleman rightly said, all states have a duty to co-operate fully with the war crimes tribunal and to deliver to it the people whom it has indicted. I cannot tell the hon. Gentleman what sanctions, if any, the international community will impose should states refuse to do so; that would have to be extremely carefully considered. It is of great importance that the war crimes tribunal is properly supported by all countries.
Mr. Jacques Arnold: What are the prospects that the really big fish--Mladic and Karadzic--will be brought before the tribunal?
Sir Nicholas Bonsor: It is extremely important that everybody concerned is prepared to honour the duty that each state must deliver to justice those indicted by the war crimes tribunal. Those gentlemen have been so indicted, and they must be delivered for trial.
Mr. John D. Taylor: Does the Minister agree that the Dayton peace conference seems to have failed to address properly the problem of war crimes in Bosnia? Does he agree that those who sponsored the peace conference specifically excluded the Bosnian Serb paramilitaries and their elected spokesmen? Will he confirm that Her Majesty's Government supported that exclusion? Will he also confirm that the exclusion was also agreed by European Union Foreign Ministers, who met in co-operation, and that one of the Ministers who supported the exclusion of the paramilitaries and their elected spokesmen was Mr. Richard Spring, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Ireland?
Sir Nicholas Bonsor: I am not aware that anybody was excluded under the Dayton agreement who should have been indicted by the war crimes tribunal. If what the hon. Gentleman says is true, I think that the exclusion should be reviewed. However, I am not aware that that is the case. As I said to the House earlier, those who have committed war crimes and those who have been indicted by the tribunal must be brought to justice.
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