Dear Ms Brown,

Thank you for your request dated 12 July 2008 where you have requested information on deportation of EU refugees. This falls to be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I have listed your questions below for reference.

Can you tell me how many EU (and EU status) (non British ) refugees

have the Home office deported back to EU country of origin where

refugee status was first gain?

How many was this compare to working illegal immigration paying

taxes compare to none working EU refugees living on state benefits?

The United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) does not centrally record the information you have requested. The information would be recorded on individual case files. However, to provide you with the information would require identifying all relevant files and manually searching them for the information requested. The information would then need to be collated into the format requested.

However, as part of the Home Office, UKBA is not obliged under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to comply with any information request where the estimated costs involved in supplying the information exceed the £600 cost limit. I regret that we cannot supply you with the information that you have asked for, as to comply with your request would exceed this cost limit. This limit applies to all central Government Departments and is based on work being carried out by one member of staff at a rate of £25 per hour, which equates to 3½ days work per request. The costs involved include locating and retrieving information you requested, and preparing our response to you. They do not include considering whether any information is exempt from disclosure, overheads such as heating or lighting, or disbursements such as photocopying or postage.

Your request would at present be too costly to answer becuase the data to these questions would be held on individual case files and is not held separately. However, if you were to refine your request further so that it falls under the £600 cost limit, we will be pleased to consider it further. Although, on this occasion I am unable to suggest how you could refine it.

Should you wish to refine your request, so that we can provide you with answers to your questions within the £600 cost limit, please write back to me at the above address.

I should also point out that if you were to break your original request down into a series of smaller applications, we might, depending on the circumstances of the case, decline to answer if the aggregated cost of complying would exceed £600.

You should also bear in mind that even if any new request were to fall below the £600 cost limit, some information which we hold on this matter which you have requested may fall to be withheld under the terms of a number of the substantive exemptions contained in Part II of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. These exemptions could also make it necessary for us to extend the period for responding beyond the usual 20 working day target if they involve having to consider the public interest balancing test.

I realise that this reply may be a disappointment to you, but I look forward to hearing from you again shortly should you wish to refine your request. If, however, you are dissatisfied with the treatment of your request, you can ask the Department to conduct an internal review of its decision. This can be done by submitting your complaint to:

If you are dissatisfied with this response, you may request an independent internal review of our handling of your request by submitting your complaint to:

United Kingdom Border Agency Information Access Policy Team

Lunar House

40 Wellesley Road

11th Floor, Short Corridor

Croydon

CR9 2BY

During the independent review the department's handling of your information request will be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. Should you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you will have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Feakins,

Freedom of Information Team,

Resource Management Group