Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how many people have requested asylum on the British Indian Ocean Territory by nationality in each of the last two years.

As an uninhabited territory, the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) does not have an asylum system as the 1951 Refugee Convention has not been extended to the territory. Where migrants have claimed that they are unable to return safely to their country of origin, their cases are considered by the Commissioner for BIOT in line with BIOT law and international legal obligations. We do not comment publicly on individual claims for protection.