PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Asylum: Children (13 October 2016)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications her Department has received from (a) children in Europe who potentially qualify for resettlement to the UK under the Dublin III convention and (b) children currently in Europe who potentially qualify for resettlement to the UK under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 who do not have a family member in the UK since 2 July 2016; and what the (i) date and (ii) outcome of those applications were.

Asked by:
Ms Stella Creasy (Labour)

The Dublin Regulation is the mechanism to transfer individuals to other Member States for consideration of their asylum claim, rather than a mechanism for resettlement. Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, regularly publishes Member State figures, which you can find via the link below:

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Dublin_statistics_on_countries_responsible_for_asylum_application

Since the start of the year, over 140 cases of unaccompanied children in Europe have been accepted for transfer to the UK under the Dublin Regulation, of which 110 have been transferred.

Between 12 May and 1 October 2016 over 50 children who meet the criteria under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 have been accepted for transfer. Over 35 have already been transferred to the UK and many more in the train.

We continue to work with the Greek, French and Italian governments as well as the UNHCR and NGOs to identify and process cases who may qualify for transfer to the UK under the Immigration Act 2016. Many cases are under active consideration as part of this process.

Answered by:
Sir Robert Goodwill (Conservative)
21 October 2016