Asked by: Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to prevent female genital mutilation.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a crime and is child abuse that requires domestic and international action. Recent work to prevent it includes:
Asked by: Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to support asylum seekers fleeing Middle Eastern countries due to being persecuted because of their religious belief.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
We are doing our utmost to provide assistance to all those in need in the region. The UK has now allocated £2.3 billion since 2012 to meet the immediate needs of vulnerable people in Syria and of refugees in the region making it one of the largest donors. Since summer 2014, we have committed £169.5 million in humanitarian assistance to help those affected by Daesh in Iraq.
In addition, the UK operates four resettlement schemes (Gateway, Mandate, the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement (VPR) Scheme and the Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme (VCRS), working closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on each to identify those most in need of resettlement, prioritising the most vulnerable.
The UK works according to the humanitarian principles of impartiality and neutrality which means that we do not take into consideration the ethno-religious origins of people requiring assistance as we assist solely on the basis of needs, identified by UNHCR.
All asylum claims lodged in the UK, including claims based on religious persecution, are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with our obligations under the Refugee Convention. Those who demonstrate a well founded fear on return to their country are normally granted protection.
Asked by: Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of Proving Torture: Demanding the impossible, Home Office mistreatment of expert medical evidence, published by Freedom from Torture in November 2016; and what steps her Department is taking to improve asylum decision-making for torture survivors.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
I refer the hon. Member to the response to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Hall Green, UIN 54220, on 30 November 2016.
Asked by: Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to speed up family reunification for unaccompanied refugee children in Europe.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government began work to implement the ‘Dubs amendment’ immediately after the Immigration Bill gained Royal Assent. Over 30 children who meet the criteria in the Immigration Act have been accepted for transfer since it received Royal Assent in May, the majority of these have already arrived in the UK.
We continue to work with the French, Greek and Italian authorities and others to speed up existing family reunification processes or implement new processes where necessary for unaccompanied children. We have seconded a UK official to Greece, we have a long-standing secondee working in Italy and will shortly be seconding another official to the French Interior Ministry to support these efforts.
We have established a dedicated team in the Home Office Dublin Unit to lead on family reunion cases for unaccompanied children. Transfer requests under the Dublin Regulation are now generally processed within 10 days and children transferred within weeks. Over 120 children have been accepted for transfer this year from Europe. We also continue to consult local authorities about the transfer unaccompanied refugee children from Europe to the UK, where it is in their best interests.
Asked by: Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure the safety of refugees coming to the UK.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Home Office works closely with local authorities to support resettled refugees as they arrive in their areas. Local authorities have a duty to protect individuals in their care – this includes resettled Syrians.
The Care Act 2014 put adult safeguarding on a legal footing and established that each local authority must set up Adult Safeguarding Boards with multi-agency membership including local partners and the Police. Local agencies, including the police and health services, also have a duty under section 11 of the Children Act 2004 to ensure that they consider the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children when carrying out their functions.
In addition, upon arrival, the local authority assign a caseworker to every resettled family/individual, who maintains close contact with the family for the first 12 months to support their well being and integration. The small number of unaccompanied minors being resettled will be placed into local authority care where their safety needs, along with other needs, will be met via the resettling authority’s children’s social care service.