UK Parliament / Open data

Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

I apologise for coming back again but the noble Baroness has jogged my memory. I am sorry that the noble Baroness, Lady Gibson, is not in her place, because she is chair of the all-party group on Latin America. When all the Latin American ambassadors came in and we asked them how the world was for them and what sort of complaints and issues were raised by their citizens, one of the issues at the top of their agenda was that everybody coming from their countries felt that there was little appreciation of the fact that Latin American people do not represent a terrorist threat; they felt judged by the colour of their skin. This is obviously a subjective issue, but it was striking that 18 ambassadors said that. That is the sort of training issue that is critical. When you go into the United States, it is noticeable that the immigration officers there talk to you more than the ones here. They say, ““Hi, where are you from? What are you here for?”” and by the time they have checked your eyeballs and your fingerprints you have exchanged a lot of information with them, usually in a perfectly pleasant way. They seem to get a lot out of people from that chit-chat.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
708 c250-1 
Session
2008-09
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Back to top