Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department holds on the number of asylum seekers who have voluntarily visited their country of origin while their asylum claim is being processed.

Requests to leave the UK whilst continuing to pursue an asylum claim will only be accepted in the most exceptional circumstances such as the serious illness or death of a close family member or access to medical treatment abroad as it is unavailable in the UK.

If the claimant does not seek permission to travel before leaving the UK, or the request is not responded to by the Home Office, before the claimant has left the UK, all circumstances will be taken into account before proceeding to withdrawal action.

Under paragraph 333C(b)(ii) of the Immigration Rules, an application may be treated as implicitly withdrawn if the applicant leaves the United Kingdom (without authorisation) at any time before the conclusion of their application for asylum.

In the Immigration System Statistics data tables, published quarterly, withdrawals are categorised into implicit (non- substantiated) and other withdrawals (including explicit). However, we do not report on withdrawals in greater detail than that, for example, according to whether someone has returned to their country of origin as it is not held in a reportable format.