Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of the humanitarian situation in the al-Hol refugee camp in Syria; and what steps her Department is taking to support refugees within that camp.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees assesses that there are an estimated 9,155 people living in the al-Hol refugee camp, including 5,650 Iraqi refugees; and shortages of food, water and health services. DFID funds World Food Programme and UNICEF’s 2016 Syria appeals through which we are supporting the provision of food, water, sanitation and hygiene services in the camp. DFID is also supporting an international non-governmental organisation to provide protection services in the camp.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, to which destinations (a) Ministers and (b) officials of her Department have taken flights as part of their official duties since her appointment.
Answered by Rory Stewart
DFID publishes information about flights and other expenses incurred on Ministerial and senior official overseas trips on a quarterly basis on www.gov.uk.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what overseas visits she has made since her appointment.
Answered by Priti Patel
The Secretary of State has visited a range of countries overseas since her appointment. Information on Ministerial Travel is published as part of DFID’s quarterly transparency return on www.gov.uk.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of the humanitarian situation in refugee camps in Greece.
Answered by Rory Stewart
In collaboration with the Greek Government, the Department for International Development (DFID) closely monitors conditions for refugees and migrants in camps in Greece. Officials from DFID make frequent visits to camps and a humanitarian adviser has been deployed in Athens. I travelled to Greece in September, where I visited camps and met with migrants and those involved in addressing the humanitarian situation.
The UK has responded generously to the Mediterranean humanitarian crisis, contributing more than £34 million to the response in Greece. This support has provided life-saving assistance refugees and migrants including the provision of food, water, hygiene kits and infant packs, and psychosocial care.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will list the refugee camps which are currently receiving aid from her Department.
Answered by Rory Stewart
DFID supports refugee camps in many different countries as part of our wider programming to assist those displaced by conflict, persecution and fear. It is not possible to list each individual camp.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the humanitarian situation in the refugee camps in Italy.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Department for International Development, and other UK Government departments, closely monitor conditions for refugees and migrants arriving in Italy, as well as the humanitarian situation there more broadly.
The UK has responded generously to the Mediterranean humanitarian crisis, contributing up to £1.5 million in humanitarian assistance to partners working in Italy. Through the Red Cross, UK aid has reached more than 85,000 refugees and migrants arriving in Italy with food assistance.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the humanitarian situation in the refugee camps in Serbia and Montenegro.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Department for International Development, and other UK Government departments, continue to closely monitor conditions for refugees and migrants in official Government-run centres and unofficial camps in Serbia, as well as the humanitarian situation in the Balkans more broadly.
The UK has responded generously to the refugee and migrant crisis, contributing up to £18 million in humanitarian assistance in the Balkans through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), the Red Cross, International Organisation for Migration (IOM), as well as the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (CPM). This support has provided life-saving aid to migrants and refugees including food, essential relief items, temporary shelter and psychosocial care.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of the humanitarian situation in Jordan.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The UK is working with the Government of Jordan to provide help to the 656,400 Syrian refugees registered in Jordan, the Jordanian host communities they live in, and address the specific needs of those on the border. But humanitarian assistance on its own is not enough and the UK with the international community and the Government of Jordan have agreed a ‘Jordan Compact’ to create new livelihoods and job opportunities for Syrians and Jordanians and ensure all children, including refugees, are in education in the 2016/17 school year. The international community will provide significant financial support and put in place policy changes on trade access to support this process.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the humanitarian situation in Lebanon.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Lebanon hosts proportionally more refugees than any other country. 1.03 million Syrian refugees are officially registered with the United Nations Refugee Agency in Lebanon with up to 500,000 more unregistered, according to the joint Government of Lebanon-UN Lebanon Crisis Response Plan. In addition, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) estimates that between 260,000 and 280,000 of the 450,000 registered Palestinian refugees from Lebanon continue to depend on UNRWA’s work and that approximately 30,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria now live in Lebanon.
The humanitarian situation in Lebanon is deteriorating. Preliminary results of the United Nation’s 2016 vulnerability assessment survey show that 70.5% Syrian refugees live below the poverty line and 93% are food insecure. In 2015, debt levels were high at an average of $857 per household and across the country Syrian refugees reside in substandard accommodation with poor access to basic services. A 2015 survey by UNRWA and the American University of Beirut found that 90% of Palestinian refugees from Syria, and 65% of Palestinian refugees who lived in Lebanon before the Syrian war, lived below the poverty line.
Since 2012, the Department for International Development has allocated £340 million in humanitarian and development funding in Lebanon to support Syrian refugees, Palestinian refugees and vulnerable Lebanese.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to assist with humanitarian action in the Lake Chad basin; and what funds have been allocated to programmes in (a) Cameroon, (b) Chad, (c) Niger and (d) Nigeria that assist with such action.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
We are deeply concerned about the scale of the humanitarian crisis across the Lake Chad Basin. This will require a sustained, multi-year response to support communities devastated by the conflict. The UK is scaling up our support.
In addition to the £90 million of humanitarian assistance we are already delivering in the region, the UK has now pledged a further £80 million of humanitarian funding. £50 million will go towards meeting the needs of the worst affected communities in Nigeria with food assistance and access to essential household items and services, and £30 million to support those who have been affected by the spread of Boko Haram into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
HMG is using a range of opportunities to push our partners and governments across the region on scaling up and improving the quality of the response. This includes calling for a Security Council briefing on the humanitarian situation which took place in July 2016; a joint demarche to the UN with the French and USA on the need to improve humanitarian capacity and performance in mid-August; chairing a Lake Chad Basin meeting in the margins of UN General assembly in September 2016, and ongoing high level bilateral meetings with UN officials.