Asylum applicants in Britain from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia), Sri Lanka and China form the largest categories.
An average of 740 applications a month were received from Yugoslavia between January and March 2000, 490 applications were received from Sri Lanka and 410 applications from China.
Asylum applications between January to March 2000 averaged 6,300 a month. This was a 36 per cent increase on the monthly average for the same period in 1999. There were 189,000 fresh applications for asylum in the first three months of 2000. In March alone there were 6,680 new applications.
The backlog of applications outstanding at the end of March was 98,365. The number of initial asylum applications made in March rose to 11,340 from 7,865 in February. This was the highest monthly total yet recorded.
More than 7,600 failed asylum-seekers were deported or left Britain voluntarily in 1999. An unknown number left without seeking official help or disappeared.
The Home Office will consider an application for asylum is seriously damaged if the person does not apply immediately upon arrival in Britain.
Other factors damaging a claim include: if the person applied for asylum after becoming liable for deportation or removal, or if that person was refused leave to enter the country; if travel documents are destroyed or mutilated and if the person engages in political activities in Britain to boost their claim.
After an initial interview by the Immigration Service, responsibility for the accommodation and dispersal of asylum-seekers app lying for refugee status at a port, anywhere in Kent or in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ire land, lies with the National Asylum Support Service, which is part of the Home Office.
Asylum-seekers who would otherwise be destitute are given temporary accommodation for the first few days while the service arranges longer-term accommodation on a no-choice basis.
In the rest of Britain, the local authority supports asylum-seekers while their claims are processed, unless their claims are considered risky and they have been sent to a detention camp or secure unit.
The support service is expected to assume responsibility for the care and dispersal of all asylum seekers (apart from those housed in camps) by the end of the year.
Fresh asylum-seekers cannot apply for social security benefits and instead each week they are issued with a book of vouchers redeemable against purchases in 15,000 small shops and supermarkets. The shops are not allowed to give change. Some of the vouchers are exchangeable at post offices for £10 cash.
The voucher scheme operates on a case-by-case basis (amounts in sterling):
Children under 16 receive £26.60;
Children between 16-17 receive £31.75;
Lone parents receive £36.54;
Adults aged between 18-24 receive £28.95;
Adults aged 26 and over receive £36.54;
Couples receive £57.37.
Asylum-seekers can apply for work after six months, but many employers are reluctant to employ them.
Owners, drivers, hirers and operators of passenger and goods vehicles face a fine of up to £2,000 for each illegal entrant they bring into Britain.
Amnesty International in Britain does not believe the Labour government is fully compliant with its legal commitments to asylum-seekers and feels it has adopted a "very strict and narrow interpretation" of UN conventions.
However, the Home Office says the British government meets all its obligations to asylum-seekers and refugees under UN and EU conventions.