Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead on 2015-10-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what has been their response to calls from UNICEF for the United Kingdom to allow refugees to apply for humanitarian visas in countries of origin and transit at United Kingdom embassies.

Lord Bates

There is no provision in our Immigration Rules for someone to be given permission to travel to the UK to seek asylum or humanitarian protection and Her Majesty’s Government has no plans to extend the Immigration Rules to allow refugees to apply for humanitarian visas at any UK embassies.

We are focusing our efforts on resettling vulnerable people in need of international protection from the region, including 20,000 Syrians by the end of the Parliament. This provides refugees with a direct and safe route to the UK and uses established UNHCR processes. This is of course in addition to the £1.12 billion in humanitarian aid provided by the UK for those most in need in the region – more than any other country in the world except the United States.