Written question asked by Andrew Rosindell (Conservative) on Wednesday, 15 February 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 February 2006. It was answered by Tony McNulty (Labour) on Monday, 27 February 2006 on behalf of the Home Office.

Asylum/Immigration

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the 50 countries of origin from which the most illegal immigrants arrived in each of the last seven years.

Answer: In 2005, the Home Office published a report which included an estimate of the size of the illegal migrant population in the UK in 2001. A copy of the RDS online report 29/05 Sizing the unauthorised (illegal) migrant population in the United Kingdom in 2001 can be found at:"http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/notes/june_summaries. html#rdsolr2905"As mentioned in the report the only method to estimate the size of the unauthorised migrant population in the UK that currently can sensibly be applied is the residual method. Using this methodology, it is not possible to estimate the country of origin of unauthorised (illegal) migrants.

Secondary information