Asylum Seekers (Hansard, 4 March 2004)

§ Beverley Hughes

[holding answer 8 December 2003]: The table provides the available information, showing the number of asylum applications, initial decisions and removals of Afghans for the last four years. Initial decisions do not necessarily relate to applications made in the same year. Nor do removals necessarily relate to initial decisions or appeal outcomes in the same year.

The United Kingdom Government opened negotiations with the Afghan Transitional Administration on return issues following the change of regime in Afghanistan. These negotiations resulted in the signing of a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding by the UK Government, the Afghan Transitional Administration and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in October 2002. The MoU establishes a framework for returns from the UK to Afghanistan. Since then, voluntary returns have commenced under the terms of that Memorandum, and from April 2003 regular enforced returns have been successfully implemented. We will continue to work with the Afghan Transitional Administration to ensure that returns to Afghanistan are sustainable.

Information on asylum applications, initial decisions and removals is published quarterly. The next publication will be available at the end of February 2004 on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate web site at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ rds/immigration l html.

²Figures rounded to the nearest five, with ^* = 1 or 2.

³Figures may include a small number of dependants leaving under Assisted Voluntary Return Programmes.

⁴Figures exclude dependants of asylum seekers removed. Data on dependants removed have only been collected since April 2001.

⁵Data on the nationality of asylum seekers removed in the final quarter of 2003 will be published in May 2004.

^(E)Data have been estimated due to data quality issues.

^(P)Provisional figures.

²(..) Not available.