Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to proactively identify unaccompanied refugee children and vulnerable families in Greece and Italy who can be brought to join family members in the UK; and what use her Department has made of the discretionary powers under the Dublin III Regulations to take charge of such children and families.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
We are working with the Greek and Italian authorities, UNHCR and non-governmental organisations to identify children from Greece and Italy who may qualify for transfer to the UK. We have seconded an expert to Greece to support these efforts, in addition to our long-standing secondee in Italy. We have established a dedicated Home Office Dublin Regulation team to lead on family reunion cases for unaccompanied children.
We will consider all requests from Member States, including Greece and Italy, to take responsibility for unaccompanied asylum seeking children or other family members where there are grounds to do so under the Dublin Regulation.