Behaviour Of Us Immigration Officials

EDM number 1468 in 1997-98, proposed by Nick Palmer on 25/06/1998.

That this House notes that Mr Harry Clements, a 58-year-old resident of Broxtowe, after visiting the United States on 30th March for a family wedding was detained by US Immigration for more than six hours before his flight home because he had omitted to state on his visa form that he had been convicted of a minor offence 41 years earlier, that for much of that time he was shackled to a chair despite his clear intention to depart on the evening flight, that he made three requests for his family to be informed of the situation, all of which were ignored, that when his family, in despair over the lack of information, started to cry, an immigration official said 'What do you think this is, a British trauma center?' and that the US Immigration Service (USIS) has declined to apologise and confirms that shackling is standard procedure for anyone detained for infringements of the visa regulations; expresses its strong disapproval at this barbaric treatment of any elderly British visitor and his family; and calls upon the USIS to recognise that this was entirely inappropriate, and to review their procedures to abolish the shackling procedure in such cases and to keep relatives fully informed.

This motion has been signed by a total of 51 MPs.