§ Lord Alton of Liverpoolasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will lay before both Houses a monthly report recording the number of individuals and families forced by paramilitary organisations to leave Northern Ireland and to go into exile; and listing the number of attacks carried out by such groups; and recording which factions are responsible where that is known. [HL2255]
§ The Lord Privy Seal (Lord Williams of Mostyn)From 1 April 2002 to 31 March this year, there have been 300 paramilitary style attacks (137 assaults and 163 shootings). The police do not hold statistics on the number of persons forced to leave Northern Ireland through paramilitary intimidation.
The Northern Ireland Office has recently been liaising with representatives of the Maranatha Community who have considerable experience in this area, on the nature/extent of the exiles problem.
Maranatha estimates that it deals on average with one person per week. This is broadly consistent with figures published by NIACRO's Base 2: in its most recent annual report covering the calendar year 2001, it records 497 of its clients leaving home, 39 of whom left Northern Ireland.