Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many asylum claims in (1) January, (2) February, and (3) to date in March, 2021, have been treated as inadmissible on the basis that the claimant was judged to have travelled through or have a connection to a safe third country; and which those countries were.

The Home Office publishes data on asylum applications in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of asylum applications are published in Table Asy_D01 and data on the number and type of asylum initial decisions are published in table Asy_D02 of the Asylum and Resettlement datasets.

Figures on the number of asylum application decisions made in the first quarter of 2021 are due to be published on 27 May 2021. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’. We are working to bring inadmissibility decisions in line with current reporting and hope to publish that information in the same timeframe.

We are reviewing the cases of those who claimed asylum before 1 January and their suitability for decision-making under the new rules. If it is appropriate for any claimants to receive decisions under the new provisions, they will be informed of that, in line with the Home Office published policy guidance.

The Home Office current published guidance is clear that we will serve an inadmissibility decision only when an individual’s return is agreed by a third country. The Home Office continues to work closely with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development to secure agreements to enable returns to be made. Any case where return is not agreed within 6 months from the date of claim will be admitted to the asylum process and will have their asylum claim substantively considered in the UK.

Information on the Home Office inadmissibility rules can be found on gov.uk under ‘Inadmissibility: third country cases’.