Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-07-06.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 27 June (HL649), how many unaccompanied refugee children have reached the UK so far this year from (1) Europe, (2) the Middle East, and (3) elsewhere, for family reunion or otherwise for resettlement.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
In the year ending March 2016 the UK received 3,206 asylum applications from unaccompanied children who had reached the UK.
We continue to fulfil our obligations under the Dublin Regulation to unaccompanied children who qualify for transfer to the UK under family reunification provisions. Since January 2016 our records show that over 60 children have been transferred from other EU countries to the UK.
In addtion, the government continues to implement the Immigration Act 2016, including the provision to transfer unaccompained refugee children to the UK from elswhere in Europe. We are consulting local authorities as required and are also working closely with relevant Member States and other partners such as UNHCR, UNICEF and Save the Children.
We are working with UNHCR on our Children at Risk Resettlement Scheme to resettle vulnerable children, both unaccompanied and with their family members from the Middle East and North Africa region. We have committed to resettling several hundred individuals in the first year.
Information on the number of unaccompanied children granted under refugee family reunion provisions in the Immigration Rules is not captured in our data and would require a manual review. This information cannot therefore be provided without exceeding proportionate costs.
