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Home Office

Answer

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Iraqi asylum seekers have returned to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. [150622] Beverley Hughes: Estimates of the number of nationals of Iraq who had sought asylum at some stage and who were removed from the UK since the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003 to June 2003--the latest available figures--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): April 2003 to June 2003 2,3,4 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Nationals of Iraq April 2003 45 May 2003 25 June 2003 20 Total 85 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 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. Information on the destination of these removals is not available. At present removals to Iraq are on a voluntary basis only, enforced returns will commence when the circumstances are right. Figures for principal asylum applicants removed from the United Kingdom in the period July to September 2003 will be available after publication of Asylum statistics Quarter 4 2003 on 24 February 2004 on the Home Office website: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ rds/immigration1.html

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

417 c701-2W; 150622

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Asylum Deportation Iraq Repatriation

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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