Written question asked by David Lidington (Conservative) on Wednesday, 4 November 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 9 November 2009. It was answered by Ivan Lewis (Labour) on Wednesday, 11 November 2009 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Asylum: Iraq

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of applications for asylum by former Iraqi locally employed civilians were rejected for having failed to amass 12 months' continuous service; and how many such applications fell short by periods of one month or under.

Answer: I have been asked to reply.Over 50 per cent. of all applications received from former members of the locally engaged staff have failed because the applicant did not meet the criteria set out in my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary's written ministerial statement of 30 October 2007, Official Report, column 30WS.Of these, the majority failed because the applicant had not completed 12 months' continuous service. Other reasons for failure were that the employment was not directly with the Government; the employment did not fall within the stated categories; or the applicant had been dismissed for disciplinary reasons.The information on numbers of those who failed because they had one month or less required service is not held centrally and would involve searching over 600 paper files held by four employing Departments. This could be done only at disproportionate cost.

Secondary information