Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many claims his Department has dealt with from asylum seekers from Iran over the last five years; and how many of those claims were (a) accepted and (b) refused.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Home Office publishes data on the number of applications and initial decisions (including the number of grants and refusals), broken down by nationality, in the quarterly Immigration Statistics publication. The latest figures, up until June 2018, are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2018
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions has he had with the House of Bishops on the criteria used by the immigration authorities to assess whether a person has satisfactory grounds for using conversion to Christianity as a reason to be granted leave to remain.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Home Office policy is clear that when considering asylum claims based on religious belief or lack of belief, caseworkers must ask appropriate and sensitive questions based on an understanding of religious concepts, philosophical viewpoints and forms of persecution a person may be subjected to in their country. Where caseworkers need to establish credibility of a conversion to any faith, the approach taken is to explore with that individual their personal experiences and journey to their new faith, both in their country and in the UK, rather than test their knowledge of religious facts.
Home Office officials regularly discuss religious-based claims with a broad range of faith groups to ensure we are considering such claims appropriately. This includes working closely with the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on International Freedom of Religion or Belief and engaging with a range of groups in order to improve our policy guidance and develop specialist training for caseworkers to drive further improvement in this important and complex area. The Home Office has not engaged directly with the House of Bishops on this matter.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been returned from the UK to the Iran in each of the last five years having exhausted the appeals process; and how many cases of such returns are pending an appeals process.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The number of returns from the UK to Iran is published in table rt_04_q (returns data tables, volume 4) in ‘Immigration Statistics, year ending June 2018’. The data are available from the GOV.uk website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2018
HM Courts and Tribunal Service publishes appeals data on a quarterly basis which can be accessed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognition-certificate-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2018
Individuals who have had their claims certified may only exercise their appeal rights once they have left the United Kingdom. Cross referencing those individuals against those with extant appeals could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to ensure immigration authorities adequately assess the safety risks of returning people to (a) Sudan and (b) South Sudan; and whether his Department undertakes monitoring of such people after their return to those countries.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
All protection claims, including those made by Sudanese and South Sudanese nationals, are carefully considered on their individual facts in accordance with our obligations under the UN Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights.
They are assessed against relevant caselaw and available country of origin information obtained from a range of reliable sources, including reputable media outlets; local, national and international organisations, including human rights organisations; and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Where people establish a genuine need for protection, we will grant it. However, those who have been found not to need protection and have no right to remain are expected to leave the UK. If they do not leave voluntarily we may seek to enforce their return on a case-by-case basis, when it is safe to do so.
We do not monitor the treatment of individuals once removed from the UK. They are, by definition, foreign nationals who have been found not to require international protection and it would be inappropriate for us to assume any ongoing responsibility for them when they return to Sudan or South Sudan.
Further, by monitoring individuals, we potentially draw attention to them and may create a risk that otherwise wouldn’t be there.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many refugees and asylum seekers have been returned to (a) Sudan and (b) South Sudan in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The number of returns from the UK to (a) Sudan and (b) South Sudan is published in table rt_05 (returns data tables, volume 5) in ‘Immigration Statistics, year ending March 2018’. This can be broken down by asylum and non-asylum cases. The data are available from the GOV.uk website at:
Asylum cases refer to those who have claimed asylum at some point, regardless of the outcome of the application.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many refugees and asylum seekers have been returned to (a) Sudan and (b) South Sudan in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The number of returns from the UK to (a) Sudan and (b) South Sudan is published in table rt_05 (returns data tables, volume 5) in ‘Immigration Statistics, year ending March 2018’. This can be broken down by asylum and non-asylum cases. The data are available from the GOV.uk website at:
Asylum cases refer to those who have claimed asylum at some point, regardless of the outcome of the application.