Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Home Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts
Monday 28th April 2014

(10 years, 6 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Baroness May of Maidenhead Portrait Mrs May
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I share the Deputy Prime Minister’s concern to ensure that we are able to provide for the commitment that we made in the coalition agreement that we would introduce exit checks. By April 2015 we will have enabled exit checks to take place for those who are leaving the UK by scheduled international travel by air, sea and rail services.

Philip Hollobone Portrait Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
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Whatever entry or exit checks we deploy, my constituents are concerned that we should not grant asylum to people who come to our shores through other safe countries. What use is being made of the Dublin convention whereby we send back such people to the last safe country they left?

Baroness May of Maidenhead Portrait Mrs May
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I hope I can reassure my hon. Friend that we do use the Dublin regulations; indeed, I defend those regulations regularly in the Justice and Home Affairs Council within the European environment. It is very important that people are returned to the first country by which they entered the European Union. Unfortunately, because of court judgments we are not currently able to return people to Greece, but we are working with the Greek authorities to improve their capability for dealing with asylum seekers so that we will be able to do so in due course.