The Forgotten Service: Immigration Officers Deserve a Medal

Regular readers of my blog will know that the very first thing I did in the House of Commons was to ask for immigration officers to be awarded the Jubilee medal. This was the subject of my first Parliamentary Motion too.

In May this year, immigration officers alerted me to the fact that the Service was denied the Jubilee medal by the last Government. This medal is awarded by the Queen to those in the emergency services.

Immigration officers are clearly in the front-line, protecting our nation against terrorism and doing their part to make Britain safe. Whenever there has been a serious crisis, such as the hijackers at Stansted Airport, it is immigration officers who have been called on to deal with the resulting emergency.

Over 50 immigration officers from all over Britain have written to me, expressing their thanks and support, with many working at Stansted.

The truth is, the service has struggled for many years to get the recognition it deserves.

Some former Ministers were highly critical of the service, in the last Government, and this only worsened the neglect. That's why I have written to the Secretary of State for Culture, Jeremy Hunt MP, and asked him to consider immigration officers for the Diamond Jubilee medal in 2012.

I also asked him to consider retrospectively awarding them the Golden Jubilee medal, just like Prison Officers and the Police.

Immigration officers seem to be taken for granted and must not become the forgotten service. They work hard to keep our borders secure and deserve to be recognised.

I am determined to do all I can to ensure that immigration officers get the recognition they deserve.

I raised this again in Parliament, by speaking in a special debate on Immigration.



You can read my speech here.

In a future blog, I will describe a dispute I had - during the debate - with a former Labour Home Office Minister, over her description of immigration officers as 'sh**s'.