PRESS RELEASE

27 January 2003

Ottaway calls for safer and fairer asylum system
Government must act now to ensure public safety

Richard Ottaway, Conservative MP for Croydon South, today called for radical changes to the asylum system to deliver a safer and fairer system in the interests of the genuine refugee and of the British public. He has asked the Government to take action to secure the country's borders at this time of heightened tension and set out a series of proposals to improve the asylum system over the long term.

Richard Ottaway said:

"It is the first duty of any Government to protect the public. It seems increasingly clear that we no longer know who is walking the streets of our Towns and Cities. Croydon is no exception".

"The Government must take immediate action to introduce 24 hour a day monitoring of all ports of entry and should ensure that no person is allowed to walk the streets of Croydon until they have been properly vetted by the security services.

"We also need a safer and fairer asylum system in the long term, where the genuine refugee is helped and the impostor is not. The next Conservative Government will therefore introduce small 'one-stop' accommodation centres for all new arrivals so that their applications can be processed quickly and efficiently.

"We will also look again at the international conventions relating to asylum, as it is clearly absurd that Britain should have to grant refugee status to people such as Taleban fighters who have recently been trying to kill our own troops".

ENDS

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