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Home Office

Answer

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many failed Iraqi asylum seekers (a) have been removed from the UK, (b) have voluntarily left the UK with government support and (c) have otherwise been recorded as leaving the UK in each year since 1997. [150619] Beverley Hughes: Estimates of the number of nationals of Iraq who had sought asylum at some stage and who were removed from the UK from 1997 to June 2003 (the latest date for which figures are available) are shown in the table. These figures include persons departing `voluntarily' after the initiation of enforcement action against them, and persons leaving under Assisted Voluntary Returns Programmes run by the International Organisation for Migration. Removals and voluntary1 departures of principal asylum applicants (excluding dependants): January 1997 to June 2003 2,3,4 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Nationals of Iraq 1997 40 1998 40 1999 n/a 2000 n/a 2001 90 2002 195 January to June 2003 175 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. n/a = Not available. 1 Includes persons departing "voluntarily" after enforcement action had been initiated against them, persons leaving under Assisted Voluntary Return Programmes run by the International Organisation for Migration, and removals on safe third country, grounds. 2 Figures rounded to the nearest five and may not sum to total due to rounding. 3 Data have been estimated due to data quality issues. 4 Provisional figures. At present removals to Iraq are on a voluntary basis only, enforced returns will commence when the circumstances are right. Information on the destination of these removals and whether they departed voluntarily with government support is not available, except by examination of individual case-files at disproportionate cost. Estimates of the nationality of those asylum seekers who were removed from the UK in the third quarter of 2003 are due to be published on 24 February 2004 on the Home Office website: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/ immigration1.html

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

150619; 417 c700W;417 c700-1W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Asylum Deportation Iraq Repatriation

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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