§ Mr. GreenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many refugees from(a) Bosnia and (b) Kosovo have arrived in the United Kingdom in each of the past five years. [90049]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienThe available information is given in the table. This relates to people who have applied for asylum and is a separate measure from those who arrived in the United Kingdom under the recent humanitarian and medical evacuation programme. Under those programmes, 4,380 Kosovars have arrived in the United Kingdom. A number of these may subsequently apply for asylum and thus be included in the tables. In addition, 2,736 arrived under earlier programmes announced from 1992 and 1995. I regret that, prior to 1996, statistics for the former Yugoslavia were not recorded under the individual states. It is also not possible separately to identify Kosovars within the available statistics for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Asylum application 1 received in the United Kingdom, excluding dependants, 1996 to 1999 2 for nationals of Bosnia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Year Bosnia Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1996 245 400 1997 170 1,865 1998 160 7,395 1999 50 3,455 1Figures rounded to the nearest 5 2January to May