§ Mr. Macleanasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) whether membership of an anti-apartheid movement group in the United Kingdom is taken as evidence of a deeply-held moral, political or religious belief for the purposes of determining whether political asylum should be granted;
(2) what account he takes when considering applications for political asylum of the fact that an applicant faces a prison sentence for failing to turn up for military service in his home country.
§ Mr. WaddingtonIn order to qualify for asylum in the United Kingdom a person must show that, if he were required to leave, he would need to return to a country to which he was unwilling to go owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
Neither of the factors referred to by my hon. Friend would of itself be likely to justify the grant of asylum, but they would be taken into account along with any other relevant considerations. The weight given to these factors would depend on the circumstances of the individual case
§ Mr. Macleanasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will state (a) how many applications for political asylum were received from South African citizens from June 1982 to the present date, (b) how many of these were refused, (c) the reasons for refusal, (d) how many of the applicants were suspected of seeking to evade the military draft in South Africa and (e) what information he has as to how many applicants belonged to anti-apartheid movements in Great Britain such as the Committee on South African War Resistance.
§ Mr. WaddingtonIn the period 1 July 1982 to 30 June 1984, 122 such applications were received and 34 (not necessarily relating to the same cases) were refused. The remainder of the information requested is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Macleanasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received alleging 579W that South African draft evaders are encouraged to join anti-apartheid groups in Great Britain in order to satisfy the criteria for granting of political asylum.
§ Mr. WaddingtonNone.