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Asylum Seekers: Darfur

Volume 708: debated on Thursday 5 March 2009

Question

Asked by

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Home Office has authorised the redocumentation of anyone claiming asylum as a Darfuri in the past four months; and what their current policy is regarding the redocumentation of people claiming asylum as Darfuris. [HL1277]

The UK Border Agency has not authorised the redocumentation of any non-Arab Darfuris in the past four months.

On 9 July 2008, the Government announced the suspension of enforced returns of non-Arab Darfuri asylum seekers to Sudan to await the outcome of the country guidance case by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal. The UK Border Agency's current policy is not to seek to re-document non-Arab Darfuris until the country guidance case has been decided. The case is expected to be heard between May and July 2009.

As this policy does not extend to Darfuris of Arab origin, it is possible that the redocumentation of individuals of this group has been authorised in the past four months. Due to the nature of the records kept by the UK Border Agency, to differentiate between such applications and those for Sudanese nationals in general would require detailed examination of individual records at disproportionate cost.