To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many nationals of (a) Afghanistan, (b) Belarus, (c) Burma, (d) the People’s Republic of China, (e) Colombia, (f) Cuba, (g) the Democratic Republic of Congo, (h) the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, (i) Iran, (j) Iraq, (k) Israel, (l) the Palestinian Territories, (m) Pakistan, (n) the Russian Federation, (o) Saudi Arabia, (p) Somalia, (q) Sudan, (r) Syria, (s) Turkmenistan, (t) Uzbekistan, (u) Vietnam and (v) Zimbabwe were (i) refused asylum and (ii) removed or voluntarily deported from the UK in each month in the third quarter of 2009. (304674)

Table 1 shows the number of principal applicants refused asylum, humanitarian protection or discretionary leave at initial decision and table 2 shows the number of removals and voluntary departures of principal asylum cases in the UK, in each month in the third quarter of 2009 for the requested nationalities.

Information on immigration and asylum are published annually and quarterly. Annual statistics 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