Written question asked by Angus Robertson (Scottish National Party) on Tuesday, 8 February 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 21 February 2005. It was answered by Hilary Benn (Labour) on Monday, 21 February 2005 on behalf of the Department for International Development.

Dept for International Development

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment his Department has made of the number of refugees from Cote d'Ivoire that have arrived in (a) Liberia, (b) Guinea, (c) Mali, (d) Burkina Faso and (e) Ghana in each month since September 2003.

Answer: Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment his Department has made of the number of refugees from Cote d'Ivoire that have arrived in (a) Liberia, (b) Guinea, (c) Mali, (d) Burkina Faso and (e) Ghana in each month since September 2003. [216289] Hilary Benn: Monthly disaggregated data of this nature is not readily available. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency responsible for registering and monitoring formal cross-border refugee flows, the numbers of Ivorian refugees arriving in these countries since September 2003 have been relatively low. Between January 2004 and September 2004, Mali registered 805 Ivorian refugee arrivals, Guinea registered nine, and none were recorded in the other countries. Following the upsurge in violence in Cote d'Ivoire in November 2004, 10,000 Ivorians were registered as newly-arriving refugees in Liberia, although more than half have since returned. The same events prompted up to 10,000 Burkinabe migrants to return to Burkina Faso, but, according to the UNHCR, there was no similar movement of Ivorians.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 431 c365W;431 c364W; 216289
Session: 2004-05
Subjects: Asylum Refugees Ghana Liberia Mali Côte d'Ivoire Guinea Burkina Faso
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk