Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what representations he has received on the applicability of the 1951 Refugee Convention to the migrants who arrived in the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus in 1998.
| The 1951 Refugee Convention places no obligation on the UK to consider asylum claims made outside its immediate territory. The Sovereign Base Area is an overseas territory and separate by legal jurisdiction to the UK. The Convention has not been extended to the Sovereign Base Areas. Representations challenging the applicability of the 1951 Refugee Convention are currently being made to the High Court on behalf of a group of refugees who have been resident in the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus since 1998. |