Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many bilateral agreements she has negotiated and concluded with member states to replace former arrangements that existed under the Dublin III Regulation; and if she will make a statement.

The UK is in discussions regarding the returns of asylum seekers to European Member States. It would not be appropriate to provide a commentary on these negotiations.

Work is underway to secure appropriate return agreements with safe countries. Returns may also be agreed with partner countries on a case-by-case basis without formal agreements. This happened historically, outside of the former Dublin arrangements, and will continue to be part of the approach we apply.

Our inadmissibility provisions in the Immigration Rules give us the legal basis to declare an asylum claim as inadmissible where a person has a connection to, or has passed through, a safe country. The first returns on inadmissible grounds have been successfully carried out.