Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people from (a) Burma, (b) Afghanistan and (c) Syria are held in immigration removal centres in England.

As at 31 March 2016, the latest published statistics, there were 66 Afghan and 19 Syrian nationals in detention in the UK. There were no Burmese nationals held in detention on the 31 March 2016.

The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of persons removed or departed voluntarily from the UK within Immigration Statistics. Information on those in detention by nationality is available in the latest release, Immigration Statistics: January to March 2016, table dt_13_q from GOV.UK on the statistics web pages at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release.

We are currently not enforcing returns to Syria, although Syrians may be removed to safe third countries, for example where they have been identified as the responsibility of an EU Member State.