Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the increase in asylum applications from Eritrean nationals in 2020.

The Home Office publishes data on the number of applications for asylum in the UK, broken down by nationality, in its quarterly Immigration Statistics release. The number of applications made by Eritreans in each year are available in the Immigration Statistics, Asy_01c:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/961749/asylum-summary-dec-2020-tables.xlsx

All asylum and human rights applications from Eritrean nationals are carefully considered and assessed on their individual merits in accordance with our international obligations.

Each individual assessment is made against the background of the latest available country of origin information and any relevant caselaw. The Eritrean Country Policy and Information Notes (available on gov.uk) outlines our position.