Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many asylum claims were made in each of the past three years by Eritreans; whether more illegal migrants were smuggled into the UK last year from Eritrea than from any other country; and what assessment they have made of religious persecution in Eritrea as a driver of Eritrean migration.

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 table as_01 (Main Applicants; Asylum, volume 1).

Latest edition available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/781299/asylum1-dec-2018-tables.ods

The Home Office is unable to report on whether more illegal migrants were smuggled in to the UK last year from Eritrea than from any other country, as the method of entry for those who entered the UK clandestinely and subsequently claimed asylum, is recorded on individual Home Office files and to obtain this information would require a manual trawl and could only be obtained at disproportionate costs.

All asylum and human rights applications from Eritrean nationals are carefully considered 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 Country Policy and Information Note Eritrea: Religious groups published in February 2018 (available on Gov.uk) outlines our position.