Mr Peter Bruinvels, Conservative Member of Parliament for Leicester East recently raised the matter of the future status of two of the Tanzanian hijackers still in Britain. The hijack of a Tanzanian Boeing 737 took place on an internal flight to Dar es Salaam on February 26 1982.

The plane eventually landed at Stansted, where the hijack ended without bloodshed. Five Tanzanians were later sentenced to a total of 27 years in prison.

Mr Bruinvels addressed Mrs Thatcher as “the Prime Minister of a country which abhors terrorism and all it stands for.” He asked “why have the Tanzanian terrorists who came to Stansted been given an amnesty and allowed to stay here for a year after serving term of imprisonment?”

Mrs Thatcher replied that those who carried out the Tanzanian hijack in 1982, and had been caught, had been sentenced to considerable prison sentences; some were now out of prison. Because of an undertaking given at the time which has been interpreted as saying they would not be returned to Tanzania, they have been refused asylum here but allowed to stay for another 12 months.