Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many refugees from the Syrian conflict have so far been relocated to the UK under the resettlement programme.

The UK is not participating in the United Nations High Commission for Refugees’ (UNHCR) humanitarian admission programme; with over 3.2 million Syrian refugees now in Syria’s neighbouring countries, the Government believes that humanitarian aid and actively seeking to end the conflict are the most effective ways for the UK to support the majority of those displaced and their host countries, rather than large scale resettlement. The UK has committed £700 million in response to the crisis, making us the second largest bi-lateral donor after the USA, and UK funding is helping hundreds of thousands of refugees to access food, clean water, medical consultations and essential supplies.

In addition to our aid programme, we operate the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation (VPR) scheme to provide sanctuary in the UK to some of the most vulnerable refugees who cannot be supported effectively in the region. The VPR scheme runs in parallel to the UNHCR programme as it is based on need rather than fulfilling a quota; however, we are working closely with UNHCR to identify the most vulnerable people displaced by the conflict.

The number of arrivals under the scheme up to September 2014 will be published on 27 November. We continue to bring groups here on a regular basis, with the intent that several hundred people will be helped over three years.