Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-04-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why less than 30 of the 157 children at Calais and identified as eligible for family re-union have so far been admitted to the UK; and what plans they have to improve the processes for re-union.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

There is no official estimate of the number of children in Calais; this is primarily a matter for the French authorities. It is only possible to assess whether an individual has links to the UK that could enable a transfer on family unity grounds once they make an application for asylum in France.

Once an asylum claim is lodged in another Member State, the Dublin Regulation procedure requesting the UK to take charge of a child on family unity grounds can take place very quickly, often in a matter of weeks, subject to consideration of the evidence in each individual case.

Since February 2016 the UK has accepted 30 requests from France under the Dublin Regulation to take charge of asylum seeking children on family grounds of which 23 have already been transferred to the UK. We are working closely with the French Government and NGOs, including on a joint communications campaign to inform migrants of their options and we provided a senior UK asylum official to the French Government who has put processes in place to support an efficient procedure.