§ Mr. Tom ClarkeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were granted asylum in the United Kingdom in each year since 1978.
§ Mr. RentonThe numbers of persons granted refugee status or asylum in the United Kingdom in each of the years 1979–88 are shown in table 2 of Home Office Statistical Bulletin Issue 25/89 "Refugee Statistics, United Kingdom 1988", published today, a copy of which is in the Library. This shows that the provisional number of asylum applicants given refugee status in 1988 was 960, the highest figure since 1983. Corresponding information for 1978 is not available.
§ Mr. Tom ClarkeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what estimate he has of what proportion of all refugees seeking asylum come to Great Britain;
(2) if he will list in ranked order the 10 main refugee-receiving countries in Europe expressed as a figure per head of the population.
§ Mr. RentonInformation is not available on asylum applications to all countries. The information available for the principal countries is given in the following table.