Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with her counterpart in the French Government on unaccompanied children in Calais vulnerable to (a) human trafficking and (b) modern slavery; and if she will make a statement.

The UK and France regularly discuss unaccompanied asylum seeking children and their vulnerabilities, including the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking at both official and ministerial level.

The UK and France signed a Treaty on 19 January at the UK-France summit, which agreed a ‘whole of route’ joint package of co-operation on migration, aimed at further strengthening our shared border and reducing the number of illegal migrants at northern French ports, as well as reducing illegal migration and tackling modern slavery and human trafficking.

As part of the Treaty, we announced a number of specific measures in respect of unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children. This includes the allocation of a £3.6 million development fund, as part of the UK’s overall £45.5m funding commitment, to identify projects which support claims through the Dublin process and ensure that those with no prospect of transferring to the UK are informed of their options.