Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Sri Lankans (1) applied for asylum, and (2) had applications approved in each year since 2008, broken down by ethnicity.

The Home Office publishes data on the number of applications and initial decisions, broken down by nationality, in table as_01_q (volume 1 of the asylum tables) in the quarterly Immigration Statistics publication. The latest figures, up until June 2018, are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2018

Data on ethnicity are not available.

Table 1: Asylum applications, initial decision, and grants on asylum applications from Sri Lankan nationals, 2008 to June 2018

1. Grants include grants of asylum, discretionary leave, humanitarian protection, and grants under family and private life rules.

2. Decisions made in a given year does not necessarily relate to the number of applications in the same year. Applications are based on the date of application and decisions are based on the date of initial decision.

3. Data include main applicants only.

4. Data for 2018 include 6 months of data only (Jan-Jun). This is the latest period that is publically available.