§ Mr. Jon Owen JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Iraqis have claimed asylum in the United Kingdom in each of the last five years; how many of them claimed to be Kurdish; and how many of those claiming to be Kurdish(a) were granted refugee status, (b) were granted exceptional leave to remain, (c) were refused both and (d) were refused both after appeal. [69342]
§ Beverley HughesThe table shows the applications and initial decisions of Iraqis, excluding dependants, claiming asylum from 1997 to 2001:
401WData for refusals after appeal are available only for 1998 when 25 appeals were dismissed.
It is not possible to say how many of the applicants are of Kurdish origin. Data on the ethnic origin of asylum seekers are not collated centrally and are therefore not available; the number of those who applied would be available only by examination of individual case files at disproportionate cost.
Information on asylum applications is published quarterly. The next publication will be available from 30 August 2002 on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigrationl.html.
§ Mr. Jon Owen JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of those Iraqi Kurds who have been refused refugee status and exceptional leave to remain after appeal have(a) been removed from the United Kingdom and (b) left voluntarily in the last three years. [69343]
§ Beverley HughesThe number of Iraqi nationals removed in the last three quarters of 2001 after making an application for asylum in the United Kingdom is given in the table, figures prior to this are not available. It is not possible to say how many of these are of Kurdish origin or at what stage of their application they were removed, it is also not possible to determine the number of persons who leave voluntarily without informing the Home Office of their departure.
Iraqi principal asylum applicants removed1,2,3,4 Number Q2 2001 25 Q3 2001 15 Q4 2001 15 1Provisional estimated data, subject to change. 2Includes persons departing 'voluntarily' after enforcement action had been initiated and persons leaving under Assisted Voluntary Returns Programmes run by the International Organisation for Migration. 3Nationality breakdown of dependants is unavailable. 4Data rounded to the nearest 5. Information on the number of asylum removals is published on a quarterly basis. The next set of data will be available on 30 August 2002 on the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate website: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigrationl.html.