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Home Office

Answer

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of asylum seekers are estimated to have entered the country illegally in each of the last five years. [168915] Mr. Browne: The number of asylum applications received in each of the last five years for which data are available are given in the table. There is no official estimate of the proportion of these who entered the country illegally. Applications1 received for asylum in the United Kingdom, excluding dependants: 1999 to 2003--Number of principal applicants _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 2Applications received 1999 71,160 2000 80,315 20014 71,025 20023 84,130 20033 49,370 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 Figures rounded to nearest five 2 May exclude some cases lodged at local enforcement offices between January 1999 and December 2000 3 Provisional figures 4 Revised figures Official estimates of the size of the illegally resident population in the United Kingdom do not exist. The Government has commissioned research into the methods used in other countries to estimate the size of the illegal population in order to define methods appropriate for the UK. The work required is challenging because, by definition, illegal migrants fall outside of official statistics and are therefore difficult to measure. People illegally present in the UK are also motivated to ensure they remain hidden, which is a challenge to conducting research.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

420 c1290W; 168915

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Asylum Undocumented migrants

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk