Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Afghan nationals are in asylum detention centres; and what plans her Department has to remove those nationals from detention centres.

The Home Office publishes data on people in immigration detention in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. The number of people in detention on the last day of each quarter are published in table Det_D02 of the Detention detailed datasets. The data include those detained under immigration powers in HM prisons from July 2017 and can be broken down by nationality of detainee and place of detention.

The latest data relates to the number of people in detention at the end of June 2021.

The Government is committed to a fair and humane immigration policy that welcomes those here legally, but tackles abuse and protects the public. There is a presumption in favour of liberty for all individuals and decisions to detain are taken on a case by case basis. Published Home Office detention policy is clear that detention must only ever be used sparingly and for the shortest period necessary.

Once a person is in detention, regular reviews are undertaken to ensure that their detention remains lawful, appropriate and proportionate. We do not detain people indefinitely. In order to protect the public, it is important that suitable accommodation is sourced prior to their release due to the risks associated with managing offenders in the community and the often-specific accommodation requirements.