Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what vetting processes are in place to prevent people with a history of violence or extremism from being granted asylum, in the context of recent developments in the Middle East.

All asylum claimants are subject to mandatory security checks to establish their identity and to link it to their biometric details for the purpose of immigration, security and criminality checks. These checks are critical to the delivery of a safe and secure immigration system.

In line with the Refugee Convention, we will apply the relevant exclusion criteria and deny the benefits of refugee status to those who commit serious crimes and are a danger to the community or those who are a threat to national security.

Extremists and other criminals who are denied protection status who cannot be removed because doing so would breach our obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, may be granted shorter more restrictive leave and will be subject to regular review. They are not eligible for the same range of benefits as those with protection status and cannot qualify for settlement. Such individuals are not welcome in the UK and will be removed at the earliest opportunity.