Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to house asylum seekers who enter the country illegally with a pet; and what happens to the pet.

The Home Office has an obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and subsistence support whilst their application for asylum is being considered.  This does not extend to accommodating pet animals.

Great Britain has one of the toughest pet border checking regimes in the world and we are committed to preserving the UK’s high standards of biosecurity and animal welfare.

If full compliance with our import health requirements cannot be demonstrated pets will be placed in quarantine at the owner’s expense, which can be up to four months depending on the circumstances. Where an individual is unable to pay quarantine fees, this may result in the pet being rehomed.

The Hon Member’s question may have been prompted by media reports on 20-21 May stating that – for the first time – a dog (reported to be an Alsatian) had been taken into quarantine at Dover after arriving with its owner by small boat.

For the official record, I can clarify that this was not the first dog to arrive by small boat, but the fifth since 2021, and it was not an Alsatian but a Chihuahua. The four dogs previously recorded as arriving over that period came on 21/8/21 (Mixed Breed), 14/6/22 (Jack Russell), 11/10/22 (Pomeranian) and 24/8/23 (Yorkshire Terrier).