Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what she is doing to help safeguard the welfare of (a) unaccompanied minors who have gone missing and (b) other unaccompanied minors in the refugee camps in Calais and Dunkirk.

James Brokenshire

Under the UK-France Joint Declaration of 20 August 2015, the UK has committed to support a range of work to address the migrant situation in northern France. The two governments have established a permanent official contact group focused on ensuring that the provisions of the Dublin III Regulation are used efficiently and effectively, including the provisions on family unity. A Home Office official was seconded to the Interior Ministry’s Dublin Unit in Paris to assist with the identification of potential requests for the UK to take charge of an asylum seeking child in France and to bring them into the Dublin Regulation procedure without delay.

The UK has provided funding to a project run by a French non-governmental organisation to identify potential victims of trafficking and exploitation (including unaccompanied children) in Calais and to direct them to appropriate support services in France.