Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, following reports that senior members of Hamas have been awarded Turkish citizenship, what plans they have to ensure UK Border Control and Home Office officials are appraised of the identity of any Hamas members recently awarded Turkish citizenship with the right to travel, with a view to preventing their entry into the United Kingdom.

Those who obtain Turkish citizenship do not have the right to travel freely to the UK, they are subject to the requirement to obtain a visa for travel. We can, and do, refuse visas on grounds on national security and exclude terrorists from obtaining clearance to travel to the UK. This is achieved through a suite of security checks.

100 percent of scheduled passengers arriving at the border are checked against our security systems. The majority of these are checked against our systems before they even travel, through the collection of advanced passenger information (API).