To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many refugees from Somalia and their dependants have so far been granted leave to remain in the United Kingdom; how many applications have been refused; and how many are awaiting a decision.
The information requested for years from 1979 to 1988, including the number of Somalian applications for refugee status and asylum awaiting a decision at the end of 1987 and 1988, is published in Home Office statistical bulletin "Refugee Statistics, United Kingdom, 1988", a copy of which is in the Library. Revised figures, including provisional figures for 1989, will be published shortly in the bulletin for 1989 and are given in the table. Figures for the number of applications outstanding especially at the end of 1989 overstate the position because of under-recording of decisions made earlier.
| Revised and more up-to-date information on applications received for refugee status or asylum from Somalian citizens | |||
| 11987 | 11988 | 21989 | |
| Grants of refugee status or asylum | 57 | 346 | 1,170 |
| Grants of exceptional leave | 385 | 73 | 305 |
| Refusals of exceptional leave or refugee status | 389 | 9 | 10 |
| Applications outstanding at end of year | 3600 | 580 | 1,820 |
| 1Revised figures. | |||
| 2Provisional figures. | |||
| 3These figures are unaltered. | |||
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the average time taken by his Department to investigate cases referred from overseas posts in order to assess whether the maintenance and accommodation requirements of the immigration rules have been met.
[holding answer 16 July 1990]: The information is not available in the form requested. But the estimated average time taken by the immigration service to deal with all categories of cases deferred by entry clearance officers during the past 12 months was about 60 days.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how long it takes for a decision to be made on a case of (a) naturalisation, (b) registration, (c) immigration, (d) eastern European casework and (e) asylum and related casework from the opening of the letter.
[holding answer 10 July 1990]: The available information relates to the average times taken from the date of receipt of applications to their completion. Applications for naturalisation and registration completed in June 1990 took 30 months and 22 months respectively. After-entry immigration applications, applications from eastern European nationals and applications for asylum completed in the first quarter of 1990 (the latest period for which information is available), took 102 days, 108 days and 9.5 months respectively.