To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers, who have been refused asylum status, have been removed from the country in (a) the last year for which figures are available and (b) the previous five years. [97638]
Data on those people who have been removed after seeking asylum at some stage are given in the table.
| Removal of asylum seekers1 | ||
| Principal applicants | Dependants2 | |
| 1997 | 7,165 | N/a |
| 1998 | 6,990 | N/a |
| 1999 | 7,665 | N/a |
| 2000 | 8,980 | N/a |
| 2001 | 9,285 | 21,495 |
| January to September 20023 | 7,780 | 1,825 |
| 1Includes persons departing "voluntarily" after enforcement action has been initiated against them and persons leaving under the assisted voluntary return programmes run by the IOM. | ||
| 2Data for dependants removed only shows those removed from April 2001 onwards. Data on dependants was not collected prior to this date. | ||
| 3Provisional data subject to change. | ||
Note:
Figures are rounded the nearest five.
Information on the number asylum seekers removed in the period October to December 2002 is due to be published on 28 February 2003 on the Home Office website: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ rds/whatsnewl.html.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans his Department has to house asylum seekers in Pyrford Court, Pyrford Common Road, Woking, Surrey. [97679]
Pyrford Court, Pyrford Common Road, Woking Surrey has not to date been considered by the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) for emergency accommodation, dispersal accommodation or as an induction centre.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people seeking asylum are registered as living at the Hinton Hotel, Fareham; and if the hotel provides accommodation to asylum seekers by arrangement with the National Asylum Support Service. [97680]
[holding answer 13 February 2003]: The voluntary sector use the Hinton Hotel as emergency accommodation to house asylum seekers. However, Fareham is not a cluster area for the dispersal of asylum seekers.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Government plans to renegotiate the UK's treaty obligations with regard to asylum seekers. [98769]
Our obligations to asylum seekers are governed by the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). We have no plans to withdraw from either convention unilaterally or to renegotiate our obligations.However, we will not be afraid to review relevant international obligations if current measures to tackle asylum are not effective.