§ Mrs. RocheTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 16 May,Official Report, columns 185–88, if he will publish a breakdown of the location of asylum seekers as at 10 May listed as 'other' in table 3 of the answer. [25810]
§ Mr. Nicholas BakerThis information is not readily available as comprehensive statistics are not currently compiled on all the places of detention of persons who have sought asylum. For this reason, only the main places were separately identified.
§ Mrs. RocheTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 16 May,Official Report, columns 185–88, when he now expects to phase out the detention of asylum seekers in prisons and police cells. [25811]
§ Mr. Nicholas BakerThe plans to expand and improve the detention accommodation for which the immigration service is responsible will reduce the need to hold immigration detainees in prisons and police cells in the future.
There will, however, always be a need for some immigration detainees to be accommodated in prisons, either because of known violent tendencies or because of a need for closer supervision than can be provided in immigration detention centres. Similarly, there will be a continuing need to use police cells for the initial detention of immigration offenders detected within the United Kingdom.
Mr. Robert AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum-seekers have been removed to Sweden on safe third country grounds since 26 July 1993; and how many of those so removed have been returned to the United Kingdom by the Swedish authorities. [26174]
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§ Mr. Nicholas BakerThe available information identifies 29 persons who had been refused asylum in the United Kingdom on safe third country grounds having been removed to Sweden since 26 July 1993. Of these, four have been returned to the United Kingdom.
Mr. Robert AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for asylum are currently outstanding. [26180]
§ Mr. Nicholas BakerAs at 31 April 1995, there were 57,610 applications for asylum outstanding in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. GerrardTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 15 February,Official Report, column 695, to the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs. Gillan), if he will identify the evidence which indicates that in the bulk of cases the asylum application is not made immediately after leave to enter or remain has been granted, but shortly before it is due to expire. [25692]
§ Mr. Nicholas BakerAn analysis of the available information for 1994 suggests that some 60 per cent. of asylum applications made by in-time visitors had not been made within one month of arrival in the United Kingdom, and about 40 per cent. had not been made within three months.