§ Fiona MactaggartTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list, for each British post abroad which operates a pre-sift system for people applying for visit visas, how many people(a) were advised to withdraw their applications and (b) followed that advice, in (i) 1999, (ii) 2000 and (iii) 2001 for the latest date for which figures are available. [5406]
§ Mr. BradshawWe do not record the number of applicants who are advised to withdraw their application at the pre-shift stage. To ask posts to provide this information now would require them to carry out a manual search of their records. This could be done only at disproportionate cost.
The number of applications actually withdrawn at posts operating a pre-sift during 1999 and 2000 is shown.
The 2001 figures are based on monthly statistical reports received from the 109 largest posts up to May 2001. The remaining posts submit information on an annual basis. To answer this question for all 164 posts we would have to ask those additional posts to extract the information requested. Given that these posts are smaller it is unlikely that many of them will pre-sift applications.
488W
Pre-sift withdrawals Number 1999 Abdu Dhabi 61 Abuja 43 Accra 1,516 Addis Abba 2,210 Amman 353 Amsterdam 254 Baku 1 Bangkok 46 Banjul 687 Beirut 3 Belgrade 98 Bombay 5,212 Bucharest 216 Calcutta 109 Casablanca 333 Colombo 33 Copenhagen 54 Damascus 958 Dar es Salaam 542 Dhaka 1,002 Dubai 192 Dublin 181 Dusseldorf 564 Geneva 105 Islamabad 24,943 Kampala 21 Khartoum 11 Kingston 858 Lagos 1,341 Los Angeles 2,435 Madras 1,101 Manila 119 Maseru 2 Nairobi 2 New Delhi 6,078 Oslo 85 489W
Pre-sift withdrawals Number Paris 1,741 Peking 2 Quito 149 Rome 349 Sana'a 8S8 Sarajevo 20 Stockholm 34 Suva 21 Tashkent 1 Tegucigalpa 4 Tehran 1,835 Tunis 463 Ulaan Baatar 40 Wellington 34 2000 Abu Dhabi 69 Abuja 883 Accra 9,221 Amman 422 Amsterdam 145 Ankara 1 Athens 29 Bangkok 38 Banjul 1,271 Beirut 1 Belgrade 214 Bombay 4,334 Bucharest 2,614 Cairo 246 Calcutta 276 Casablanca 440 Colombo 230 Copenhagen 85 Damascus 1,051 Dar es Salaam 355 Dhaka 610 Dubai 560 Dusseldorf 1,091 Geneva 209 Honiara 1 Islamabad 25,106 Kampala 540 Karachi 1,604 Kiev 80 Kingston 918 Kinshasa 37 Lagos 580 Lima 2 Los Angeles 2,908 Luanda 150 Madras 836 Madrid 58 Manila 163 New Delhi 8.407 Oslo 23 Paris 2.504 Peking 12 Quito 108 Sana'a 812 Stockholm 145 Tehran 1,876 Tripoli 57 Tunis 535 Wellington 120 Zagreb 98 20011 Abu Dhabi 39 Abuja 186 Accra 3.975 Addis Abba 16 Amman 229
Per-sift withdrawals Number Amsterdam 22 Ankara 3 Bahrain 8 Banjul 530 Belgrade 75 Bogotá 300 Bombay 1,766 Bucharest 921 Cairo 74 Calcutta 197 Casablanca 141 Colombo 132 Copenhagen 14 Damascus 229 Dar es Salaam 137 Dhaka 352 Dubai 74 Dusseldorf 233 Geneva 79 Islamabad 6,813 Kampala 255 Karachi 1,115 Kiev 52 Kingston 293 Lagos 506 Los Angeles 859 Luanda 137 Madras 612 Madrid 99 Manila 13 New Delhi 4,542 Oslo 4 Paris 967 Peking 102 Quito 72 Sana'a 74 Sarajevo 1 Sofia 1,084 Stockholm 70 Tehran 636 Tunis 257 Washington 2 Wellington 48 Zagreb 49 1 To May