§ Mr. LansleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what(a) targets and (b) performance indicators he has set for the time taken to process fast track applications for asylum in respect of claimants accommodated at the Oakington Reception Centre; and what the performance against them was in 2003. [161030]
§ Mr. Browne[holding answer 12 March 2004]Details of Home Office targets are given in the Spending Review 2002 Public Service Agreement Technical Notes, a copy of which is available from the Library of the House. The targets relate to financial years. There is no specific target for the speed of processing cases dealt with via the Oakington process.
The overall target for new substantive asylum applications received in 2003–04 is to ensure that 75 per cent. are decided and served within two months and we are on track to exceed the target. 80 per cent. 1,2 of applications received in the period April to
- 1Source:
- A-CID database as at 30 January 2004.
September 2003 had initial decisions reached and served within two months3.
There is a target for the fast turnaround of non-suspensive appeal (NSA) cases where the claimant is detained throughout the process, most of which are decided at Oakington. For 2003–04 this is to process 60 per cent. of new, detained, non-suspensive appeal cases within 14 days.
It is planned that performance against PSA targets relating to 2003–04 will be published in due course (once the data are judged sufficiently reliable) in the regular quarterly asylum statistics, a copy of which is available in the Library of the House and from the Home Office's Research Development and Statistics web site: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rdsiimmigrationl.html
- 2 excludes withdrawals and 3rd country cases which may be the responsibility of other EU member states under the Dublin Convention. Home Office's Public Service Agreement target for 2001–02 was 60 per cent. and for 2002–03 was 65 per cent.. The target for 2003–04 is 75 per cent.. Excludes asylum applications lodged by Iraqis between 1 February and 31 May 2003.
1099W - 3 "Two months" is defined as 61 days; "Four months" is defined as 122 days; "Six months" is defined as 182 days.
§ Mr. MalinsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 2 March,Official Report, column 896W, on asylum and immigration, if he will publish the terms of bilateral and Community readmission agreements as to the process and evidence required for the re-documentation of returning nationals in respect of each of the countries to which the Answer refers. [161159]
§ Mr. BrowneThe UK's readmission agreements with Albania and Romania have been laid before Parliament. The Command Papers will be available on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office web site, upon completion of the ratification process. Both agreements provide that identity and citizenship or right of abode of a person is to be proved, or may be reasonably presumed through a number of valid documents specified in the agreements, or any other evidence acceptable to both Parties. The agreements set out how the request and response for readmission should be made. together with the timescales for the procedure.
The readmission agreements between the European Community and Sri Lanka and Albania have now been concluded. Those with Algeria, China, Pakistan, Russia and Ukraine have not been concluded. The ratification process for the agreement with Sri Lanka is advanced and the process for Albania has just commenced with the issue of Council Decisions to sign and conclude the agreement. Both documents have been deposited with the Parliamentary Scrutiny Committees and will be published following ratification, in the Official Journal of the European Community.
§ Jeremy CorbynTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many unsuccessful asylum applicants have been returned to(a) Somalia and (b) Somaliland in the past year; and what monitoring of the safety of the situation there he has undertaken. [153946]
§ Mr. BrowneAlthough Somaliland declared its independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991, it is not recognised internationally and asylum applicants received from those originating from that part of Somalia are not recorded separately.
Estimates of the number of Somali nationals who had sought asylum at some stage and who were removed from the UK in the period July 2002 to June 2003 (the latest available figures) are shown in the table. Information on the destination of these removals is not available. These figures include persons departing 'voluntarily' after the initiation of enforcement action against them, and persons leaving under Assisted
1100W
Removals and voluntary1 departures of principal asylum applicants (excluding dependants)—June 2002 to June 20032,3,4 Month/Year Number of Departures July 2002 >5 August 2002 * September 2002 5 October-2002 5 November 2002 5
Removals and voluntary1 departures of principal asylum applicants (excluding dependants)—June 2002 to June 20032,3,4 Month/Year Number of Departures December 2002 5 January 2003 * February 2003 5 March 2003 * April 2003 * May 2003 5 June 2003 5 Total 45 1Includes persons departing "voluntarily" after enforcement action had been initiated against them, persons leaving under Assisted voluntary return programmes run by the International Organisation for Migration, and removals on safe third country grounds. 2Figures rounded to the nearest five with * denoting one or two and may not sum to total due to rounding. 3 Data have been estimated due to data quality issues. 4 Provisional figures. All asylum (and human rights) claims made by Somalis are considered on their individual merits in accordance with our obligations under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Should a claim be refused and any appeal before the independent Immigration Appellate Authority be unsuccessful, it means that for that individual it is safe to return.
In making decisions about removing failed asylum seekers, the Home Office takes full account of up to date information from a wide range of sources about the situation in the country of origin. These sources include intergovernmental organisations (such as the UN), governmental sources (including the Foreign and Commonwealth Office) and human rights organisations (for example, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch).
§ Mr. SarwarTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the number of people claiming asylum in the UK in 2004. [164972]
§ Mr. BrowneInformation on asylum applications is published quarterly. The publication covering the first quarter of 2004 (January to March) will be available on 25 May 2004 on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigrationl.html.
In 2003, there were 49,370 asylum applications—a drop of 41 per cent. when compared to 2002 (84,130) and much more than in the rest of Europe (down 10 per cent.1 when compared with 2002). Several recent new initiatives are continuing to impact on intake, including juxtaposed border controls, roll out of new detection technology, and the expansion of the non-suspensive appeals provisions (NSA). (In July 2003 the list of NSA countries was expanded further and now stands at 24 countries.)
The reductions in unfounded claims must be sustained—we are not looking for one-off or temporary falls in claims in any one month or year, but consistently lower numbers over the long term. However intake does also depend on world events and the important point is to reduce the number of unfounded claims to ensure that the system is not abused and those with well founded claims receive fair and fast treatment.
1Figures are provisional and exclude Italy.
1101W
§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the proportion of asylum seekers claiming to be Somali who are(a) Tanzanian and (b) from other nearby countries. [160207]
§ Mr. BrowneAs with all asylum seekers, we rigorously assess those claiming to be Somali for evidence of Somali nationality. A significant proportion of Somali asylum seekers are refused asylum on grounds of disputed nationality. However, information on exactly how many Somali asylum seekers are believed to be Tanzanian or of other East African nationalities is not readily available. This could be obtained only at disproportionate cost by examination of individual case records.
Therefore we cannot definitively say what proportion of Somali asylum seekers are Tanzanian or from other nearby countries. However, operational and intelligence sources suggest that a considerable percentage of Somali asylum seekers are in fact from surrounding East African countries, including Tanzania. In particular, the introduction of language testing has provided strong evidence that many asylum seekers claiming to be Somali are of other nationalities. We are working in cooperation with the Tanzanian government to identify their nationals who have claimed asylum as Somalis.
§ Lembit ÖpikTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many illegal immigrants were arrested by the authorities in the UK other than at points of entry into the UK in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [160376]
§ Mr. BrowneDetailed figures are not kept nationally of the number of illegal immigrants detected in the UK other than at points of entry.
§ Lembit ÖpikTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the cost to the Government of illegal immigrants who avoid detection at points of entry into the UK in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [160378]
§ Mr. BrowneIllegal immigrants who avoid detection at points of entry into the UK, and who do not subsequently leave the country, form part of the illegally resident population.
Official estimates of the size of the illegally resident population in the United Kingdom do not currently exist and it is therefore not possible to calculate the costs associated with this group.