Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an assessment of the number of illegal migrants who arrived in the United Kingdom from the Republic of Ireland in each of the last three years.

Operation Gull is an ongoing Home Office Immigration Enforcement intelligence led initiative that tackles Common Travel Area (CTA) immigration abuse in air and sea ports in Northern Ireland. Operation Gull and its outcomes are systematically monitored to ensure that threats and trends are continuously assessed.

To maintain the highest standards of accuracy, the Home Office prefers to refer to published data, as this has been subject to rigorous quality assurance under National Statistics protocols prior to publication.

Our published data is available at the following link: Statistics relating to Illegal Migration - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).