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The number of outstanding asylum appeals as of 1 November 2009 is as follows:
Number of cases Immigration Judge1 3,282 High Court Review (Filter) Applications2 271 Reconsiderations3 1,304 Total Asylum Appeal cases outstanding 4,857 1 Initial appeal of Home Office decision. 2 The application to review whether a reconsideration of the case is appropriate because of an error of law 3 Reconsideration of case because of an error of law.
The requested information is not available prior to 2004; however, the following table shows the number of removals and voluntary departures of children asylum cases under the age of 18, including dependants, from the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2008, by age group and country of destination.
The figures provided include children in family groups. Where they have been found by the UK Border Agency and the independent courts to have no basis of stay in the UK they are expected to leave the country or face an enforced removal. Wherever possible they are given the opportunity to make a voluntary departure. The UK Border Agency only consider returning an unaccompanied child with no legal right to remain in the UK to their country of origin if safe and adequate reception arrangements are in place.
Published statistics on immigration and asylum are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate website at:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration-asylum-stats.html
Number of departures4 2004 2005 2006 2007 20085 Enforced removals and notified voluntary departures6,7 1,050 1,400 1,035 570 505 of which: under 5 years 435 500 375 220 175 5 to 11 years 295 435 355 205 180 12 to 16 years 205 330 230 115 120 17 years 115 140 80 30 25 Assisted voluntary returns8 295 235 580 305 160 of which: under 5 years 120 110 280 145 70 5 to 11 years 100 65 190 95 50 12 to 16 years 60 40 80 50 30 17 years 20 20 30 15 10 Other voluntary departures9 n/a * 30 35 60 of which: under 5 years n/a * 5 5 10 5 to 11 years * 5 15 20 12 to 16 years n/a * 5 10 20 17 years n/a * 5 5 15 Total removals and voluntary departures 1,345 1,635 1,645 905 725 of which: under 5 years 555 610 660 370 255 5 to 11 years 395 500 555 310 250 12 to 16 years 265 370 320 175 170 17 years 135 155 110 50 50 n/a = not applicable. 1 Figures are rounded to the nearest 5 (- = 0, * = 1 or 2) and may not sum to the totals shown because of independent rounding. 2 Figures include dependants. 3 This figure may overstate because some applicants aged 18 or over may claim to be younger on their date of departure from the UK. 4 Removals and voluntary departures recorded on the system as at the dates on which the data extracts were taken. 5 Provisional figures. Figures will under record due to data cleansing and data matching exercises that take place after the extracts are taken. 6 Due to a reclassification of removal categories, figures include asylum removals which have been performed by enforcement officers using port powers of removal and a small number of cases dealt with at juxtaposed controls. 7 Since October 2006, figures include persons leaving under facilitated return schemes. 8 Persons leaving under assisted voluntary return programmes run by the International Organization for Migration. May include some cases leaving under the assisted voluntary return for irregular migrants programme and some cases where enforcement action had been initiated. 9 Since January 2005, persons who it has been established left the UK without informing the immigration authorities.
Information on asylum refusals by age group and country of origin is not collated.
Information on asylum is published annually and quarterly. Annual statistics for 2008 and the latest statistics for Q3 2009 are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate website at:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration-asylum-stats.html
Information on asylum applications from principal applicants (since 2001) and dependants (since 2002) is only available by the published age categories at time of application and nationality. Information prior to these dates is not available.
The figures are available from the annual Statistical Bulletin Asylum Statistics United Kingdom prior to 2008 and the supplementary tables of the Control of Immigration Bulletin 2008 for the year of 2008. Copies of these publications are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics website at:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html