§ Mr. MacDougallTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many people from Fiji have received entry clearance to reside in the United Kingdom in each of the last five years. [53908]
§ Mr. Bradshaw[holding answer 2 May 2002]: I list below details of entry clearance applications received and issued in Suva for settlement since 1997. We do not record the nationality of those applying for settlement and applicants can apply at any post in the world.
To differentiate between nationality of each applicant. we would need to ask all 166 entry clearance posts to carry out a manual search of their records. This could be done only at disproportionate cost.
Received Issued 1997 36 36 1998 42 39 1999 22 20 2000 42 42 20011 7 7 12001 statistics cover period 1 January to 31 March 2001 All entry clearance posts submit an annual statistical return from which the above statistics were obtained. This information is collated in the Entry Clearance Annual Statistics booklet, copies of which are currently available in the House Library. The latest year for which this information is available is 2000.