§ Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which countries have an International Organisation for Migration office; where are they located and what funding he provides to each office; how many individuals have been assisted to return to each country; and how many of them have received reintegration assistance. [117766]
§ Beverley HughesThe International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is an intergovernmental, and independent organisation that operates in more than 100 different countries. Full and detailed information regarding their activities and worldwide office locations is available on their inlernet website at www.iomlondon.org
Funding for IOM is commercially confidential and cannot be disclosed. I can however say that the Government of the United Kingdom, along with other United Nation member states, makes an assessed contribution towards the administration budget of the IOM's worldwide operation. IOM also operate, on behalf of the Home Office, an assisted voluntary return programme, which is co-financed by the European Refugee Fund.
Regarding the numbers of individuals who have been assisted to return to their country of origin and/or have received reintegration assistance:
Revised figures regarding persons who left the UK under Assisted Voluntary Returns (AVR) Programmes in 2002 are not yet available but will be published on the Home Office website later in the year in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin "Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom 2002". I can however provisionally say:
890 principal asylum applicants left the United Kingdom under AVR Programmes during 2002 and 980 during 2001.In addition, 305 dependants of asylum seekers who left the UK under such programmes in 2002 and 230 in the period April to December 2001.Data on dependants removed have only been collected since April 2001.A nationality breakdown of this information is not available.Reintegration assistance was introduced to the assisted voluntary return programme, from 2002, in support of the sustainability of return. This information is therefore not yet available.