Refugees admitted to the island over the last 40 years (FOI)

​Request

A.

Please advise how many refugees we have welcomed to the island in the last 40 years since 1975

B.

Please advise how many refugees we have welcomed to the island in the preceding 40 years from 1935 to 1974 or if this data is not available, from post war to the end of 1974

C.

Do we have an island wide annual target or quota for welcoming refugees?

D.

Has the UK government requested or corresponded with Jersey about accepting a certain number of refugees at any point over the last 40 years? If this is not possible to access this information, please apply the same question to recent years and state the range of years referred to

E.

Have any other organisations or jurisdictions asked Jersey to accept refugees during the last ten years?

Response

A.

Refugees (including stateless persons) who are already lawfully within the Common Travel Area (United Kingdom, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey) may enter Jersey without passing through an immigration control; no statistical data is held on the entry of such persons into the Island from the Common Travel Area. 

Refugees may be admitted into Jersey from outside the Common Travel Area, if they are in possession of a valid passport or travel document (eg Titre de Voyage) and a valid UK visa.

The Customs and Immigration Service advise that it is not uncommon for a ‘Refugee’ to be admitted (eg as a visitor or as a resident returning en route to the United Kingdom), but that no statistical data is held on the numbers of such persons entering the Island.

B.

As above.

C.

No, Jersey does not have any targets or quotas regarding the acceptance of refugees.

D.

We are not aware of any requests from the UK Government for Jersey to accept refugees. 

In response to the current Syrian refugee crisis, officials are in contact with the UK Home Office in order to explore what might be involved in the settling a small number of refugee families in the Island.

The Jersey Government is not aware of any previous / historic correspondence with the UK Government on this matter.

E.

We are not aware of any such requests.