Commentary on Sections Part 4: Immigration and Asylum
69.This Part contains measures concerned with the capacity of the UK’s immigration and asylum procedures to deal with people whose presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.
70.The first two measures – extended powers to detain foreign nationals who are suspected international terrorists (sections 21 to 32) and non-consideration of the substance of an asylum claim made by certain people whose removal from the UK is conducive to the public good (sections 33 and 34) – are fairly narrow in their focus. They apply only to those cases where any appeal against a decision taken by the Secretary of State is to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC). SIAC is an independent judicial body set up by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission Act 1997 to hear appeals which involve a public interest provision. A “public interest provision” is a provision by which a person’s presence in the UK is considered not to be conducive to the public good for reasons of national security, or the relations between the UK and any other country, or for other reasons of a political nature.
71.The third measure allows the Secretary of State to retain fingerprints taken in asylum and certain immigration cases which were previously destroyed once the case was decided.