The Countess Marasked Her Majesty's Government:
For each year since 1990, how many asylum seekers who are citizens of Sri Lanka and who have exhausted all legal means of appeal against refusal to recognise them as refugees have been returned to Sri Lanka; and how many have been granted exceptional leave to remain. [HL1826]
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Rooker)Information on the number of Sri Lankan asylum seekers removed from the United Kingdom and granted exceptional leave to remain in the years 1990 to 2000 is given in the table. It is not possible separately to identify how many of those persons granted asylum or ELR under the backlog criteria were granted ELR.
I regret that information on the destination of failed asylum seekers removed from the United Kingdom is not collected centrally and could only be obtained by examining individual case files at disproportionate cost.
Information on asylum applications, initial decisions, appeals, removals and detention is published quarterly on the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.
227WA
Sri Lankan asylum seekers1 Year Removed from the United Kingdom 2.3 Granted ELR under normal procedures4 Granted asylum or ELR under backlog criteria5 1990 — 6455 — 1991 — 6730 — 1992 60 4,265 — 1993 75 2,420 — 1994 55 105 — 1995 60 95 — 1996 80 25 — 1997 95 15 — 1998 140 10 — 1999 — 10 620 2000 — P285 P895 Figures rounded to the nearest five. 1 Persons who had sought asylum at some point. Information on grants of ELR is of initial decisions, excluding the outcome of appeals or other subsequent decisions.
2 Includes persons removed under enforcement processes and persons refused and removed at ports of entry. 3 Includes persons departing "voluntary" after enforcement action had been initiated against them. 4 May include some cases decided under the backlog criteria. 5 Cases decided under measures aimed at reducing the pre-1996 asylum application backlog. 6 Decision figures for 1990 and 1991 may understate. P Provisional figures. — Not available.