Asylum (Hansard, 20 January 2004)

§ Annabelle Ewing
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will define the circumstances in which it would be in the interests of children of asylum seekers to separate them from their parents. [142767]

§ Beverley Hughes
[holding answer 8 December 2003]The Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc.) Bill does not change in any way the grounds on which children may be taken into care. The Government's policy remains to ensure that families whose asylum claims have failed are removed together. Where there are difficulties or delays with enforced removal, but families have been provided with opportunities to return voluntarily and at no cost to themselves, the Bill provides that families who refuse these opportunities would no longer be entitled to support at the expense of the taxpayer. If parents fail to take these opportunities to leave and put their children1208W at risk, it would be for the local authority to decide how the interests of their children should be protected under existing child protection legislation.

§ Tim Loughton
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many unaccompanied child asylum seekers arrived at Gatwick in each of the last three years; and how many of them are registered in care; [144994]
(2) how many unaccompanied child asylum seekers have presented themselves at UK ports of entry in each of the last six years. [141057]

§ Beverley Hughes
Data on the number of asylum seekers without documentation claiming to be minors that arrive at specific ports of entry are not recorded and collated centrally. This information could therefore be obtained from individual case files only at disproportionate cost.
Information on asylum statistics is published quarterly on the Home Office website at http:// www. homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration 1. html.

§ Tom Cox
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many(a) men and (b) women were allowed to enter the United Kingdom as political or religious refugees from Somalia during 2003. [148071]

§ Beverley Hughes
The number of Somali men and women allowed to enter the United Kingdom as political or religious refugees during 2003 is not currently available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost by examination of individual case records.
Information on asylum applications and decisions by gender and nationality is published annually. The annual publication for 2003 will be available at the end of August 2004 on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate web site at ht tp://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration 1. html.