Tim Farron – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2015-10-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the system for removing (a) vulnerable people and (b) victims of trafficking to places of safety from the migrant camps in Calais; and how much funding her Department has provided to improve that system.

James Brokenshire

The provision of humanitarian assistance for people on French soil is a matter for the French authorities. However, both Governments are committed to identifying and helping those people who are especially vulnerable or potential victims of trafficking. This is why the Home Secretary and French Interior Minister agreed in the UK-France Joint Declaration in August 2015 to set up a project to increase observation in the camps to identify those people; to provide medical help and protection where required; to put in place a system to transfer them to places of safety; and to ensure they are offered the appropriate advice and support from the French system. The project will assist with our commitment to tackle the organised criminal gangs who facilitate human trafficking, and we are working together with French law enforcement partners to identify and target these gangs to prevent this occurring in the first place. The UK has contributed almost £550,000 towards this project as part of the Joint Fund announced in September 2014. The 2015 Joint Declaration also commits the UK to a further financial contribution of £3.6 million per year for two years to support the French Government in a range of activities to reduce the numbers of migrants in Calais and the incentives for them to stay there.