Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for her policies of the absence of a registered Treaty of Union between the Republic of Cameroon and the Southern Cameroons under Article 102 of the UN Charter.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has historically recognised the outcome of the 1961 UN-organised plebiscite, in which the territories now forming the North-West and South-West regions voted to join the Republic of Cameroon, as endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1608(XV).
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what her Department's policy is on the status of Southern Cameroon following the 2009 African Commission ruling in Gunme v Cameroon.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has historically recognised the outcome of the 1961 UN-organised plebiscite, in which the territories now forming the North-West and South-West regions voted to join the Republic of Cameroon, as endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1608(XV).
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the legal status of Southern Cameroons on the number of asylum applications from that region since 2021.
Answered by Alex Norris - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office has not made a specific assessment that the legal status of those from any part of Cameroon has driven changes in asylum intake since 2021. As with all nationalities, the number of asylum applications can fluctuate for a range of reasons, including wider political, security and humanitarian conditions, and global events.
All asylum claims from Cameroon are considered on their individual merits, in line with the Refugee Convention and the latest available country information.
We will not remove anyone to a country where they will face persecution or serious harm.
Data on the number of asylum claims, broken down by nationality, is published in table Asy_D01 of the ‘Asylum claims and initial decisions datasets’. The latest data relates to the year ending March 2026.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum claimants there are in Northern Ireland for which the latest data is available.
Answered by Alex Norris - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office are unable to state how many asylum claimants there are in Northern Ireland as this information is not routinely collated.
The Home Office publishes data on the number of individuals in receipt of asylum support. The most recent published statistics show that, as at the end of March 2026, 2,379 asylum seekers were receiving Home Office support in Northern Ireland (source: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (opens in a new tab) table Asy_D11). This figure does not include asylum claimants who are not in receipt of asylum support, as this information is not available from published statistics and could only be collated at disproportionate cost.