Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-06-15.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of asylum applications over the past 12 months came from Syrian minors, and what percentage of those were accepted.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
In the year ending March 2016, there were 41,563 applications for asylum from main applicants and dependants. Of these applications, 1% (367) were made by Syrian nationals aged under 18 at the time of application.
In the year ending March 2016, there were 268 initial decisions for Syrian main applicants and dependants, who were aged under 18 at the time of decision. Of these decisions, 94% (253) were grants of asylum or an alternative form of protection.
Initial decisions may not necessarily relate to applications made in the same period.
In addition to those asylum seekers who apply in the UK, resettlement schemes are offered to those who have been referred to the Home Office by UNHCR (the UN agency for refugees). The figures above exclude such resettled persons.
The Home Office publishes quarterly figures on asylum applications and initial decisions within the Immigration Statistics release. A copy of the latest release, Immigration Statistics January to March 2016, is available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-january-to-march-2016.
