| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
5 Jul 2005 : Column 373W—continued
Asset Recovery Scheme
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many full-time equivalent officers have been engaged by each police authority area in asset recovery in each year since the introduction of asset recovery listed in descending order. [6165]
Hazel Blears
[holding answer 27 June 2005]: The number of asset recovery financial investigators in each police authority area in 2003–04 is set out in the table. These are the latest data available. The Home Office is funding 88 financial investigator posts on asset recovery in police forces at a cost of £2.6 million a year from 2002–03 to 2005–06. The Home Office is also funding five Multi-Agency Regional Asset Recovery Teams at a cost of up to £12 million per year.
5 Jul 2005 : Column 374W
Asylum Seekers
Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of failed asylum seekers in the UK. [2849]
Mr. McNulty:
Information on the total number of asylum seekers currently in the UK, including failed asylum seekers, is not available. This could be obtained only at disproportionate cost by examination of individual case records. In addition some applicants may leave the United Kingdom without informing the Immigration Service. E-borders and ID cards will enable us to monitor this more precisely in the future. The Home Office published on 30 June, the outcome of the assessment of the applicability to the UK of the methods used by researchers and Government agencies in other countries to estimate the size of the illegal population. The methods had been identified in the report by the Migration Research Unit (MRU) of University College London on Sizing the Illegally Resident Population in the UK". A copy of the RDS On-line report 29/05—Sizing the unauthorised (illegal) migrant population in the United Kingdom in
5 Jul 2005 : Column 375W
2001" can be found at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/notes/june_summaries.html. As in other countries, the number of unauthorised" or illegal" migrants—including failed asylum seekers—in the UK is unknown. The MRU report published last year reviewed the methods used in other countries and assessed their viability for use in the UK. That report suggested that a method which could be applied in the UK is the residual method" used in the United States. The new report details how that method has been applied in the UK. It must be emphasised that, while this method is one that can be used with data available for the UK, over-reliance must not be placed on this result in the absence of the means to produce other estimates using different methods.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what procedures are followed when an illegal asylum seeker is detected inside UK borders. [5404]
Mr. McNulty: The Immigration Nationality Directorate (IND) does not recognise the term illegal asylum seeker". It is not illegal to seek asylum. However, a proportion of those who enter or remain in the United Kingdom illegally will subsequently seek asylum. IND will treat as an offender liable to be removed any person who has entered the United Kingdom without permission or who has obtained permission to enter the country by deception or who has overstayed. However, where a person states that they have a fear of return to their country of origin and claims asylum, the application is considered in the light of all the known circumstances before any action to remove is undertaken. Illegal entrants and overstayers are liable to detention or may be granted temporary admission with conditions to reside at a particular address and report regularly to an immigration reporting centre while their asylum claim is under consideration.
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list complaints made by asylum detainees against escort services to and from Yarl's Wood and Oakington in the last six months, broken down by (a) source and (b) date; and what the (i) outcomes and (ii) dates of the outcomes of the investigations into these complaints were. [8452]
Mr. McNulty: For reasons of confidentiality it is not possible to list by name the complaints received. In the last six months, 10 complaints were received from asylum detainees against escort services to and from Yarl's Wood and Oakington. Of these, three were received in January, one in March, two in April, and four in May. Eight of these cases have been referred to the police as the allegation was one of assault. In all of these eight cases the police investigation is still ongoing. In the remaining two cases the Escorting Contract Monitor for the UK Immigration Services carried out an internal investigation into the conduct of the escorts. Both complaints were found to be unsubstantiated.
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many complaints have been made by detainees about their treatment by escort services to and from Yarl's Wood detention centre in the last six months. [8456]
5 Jul 2005 : Column 376W
Mr. McNulty: In the last six months, 11 complaints have been received from detainees about their treatment by escort services to and from Yarl's Wood.
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for asylum were received from Zimbabwean nationals in (a) 2000, (b) 2001, (c) 2002, (d) 2003 and (e) 2004; and if he will make a statement. [8457]
Mr. McNulty: Information on asylum applications for nationals of Zimbabwe are published quarterly and annually. The information requested is published in the annual bulletin Asylum Statistics United Kingdom 2003, and (data for 2004) Asylum Statistics: 4th Quarter 2004 United Kingdom. Copies are available from the Library and on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html
Mr. Hood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many failed asylum seekers have been sent back to Zimbabwe in the past 18 months. [8839]
Mr. McNulty: Information on the destination for the removal of failed asylum seekers have only been available since the beginning of 2004. The latest published information on removal of asylum seekers covers the first quarter of 2005.In the 15 months from January 2004 until March 2005 195 principal asylum applicants were removed to Zimbabwe. A further 15 dependants of asylum seekers were removed to Zimbabwe in the same time period. These figures include people departing voluntarily after enforcement action has been initiated against them and people leaving under Assisted Voluntary Returns programmes run by the International Organisation for Migration. Figures have been rounded to the nearest five. Information on removals of asylum seekers for the second quarter of 2005 will be published in August on the Home Office website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html
Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers are on hunger strike in Harmondsworth detention centre. [7593]
Mr. McNulty: As of the evening of 3 July, there were 16 detainees who were refusing food at Harmondsworth removal centre.
British Citizens/Subjects
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the differences are between a British citizen and a British subject; and if he will make a statement. [8965]
Mr. McNulty:
All British citizens have the right of abode in the United Kingdom, and all are deemed to be nationals of the United Kingdom" for the purposes of the Treaty Establishing the European Community. Most British subjects do not have the right of abode in the United Kingdom, but some do on the basis of a pre-1983 marital or ancestral connection with this country. British subjects who do have the right of abode here are deemed to be nationals of the United Kingdom" for European Community purposes. Other distinctions
5 Jul 2005 : Column 377W
may stem from statutory or non-statutory rules for which the Home Office is not responsible, or from the laws of other countries.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what travel regulations apply to British subjects married to British citizens. [8966]
Mr. McNulty: A British subject who is not expressed by the Immigration Act 1971 to have the right of abode in the United Kingdom is subject to control under the Act. The requirements applicable to such a person seeking to join a spouse who is present and settled in the United Kingdom are in part eight of Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules HC 395. Such travel regulations may be imposed on British subjects by any other state are, subject to any international agreements it may have entered into, a matter entirely for that state.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |