Asylum: Syria

(asked on 22nd January 2015) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many local authorities have (a) applied for and (b) received funding from her Department for the purposes of resettling Syrian refugees; and what the total value was of that funding.


Answered by
James Brokenshire Portrait
James Brokenshire
This question was answered on 9th February 2015

A number of local authorities across the UK accept Syrian refugees under normal asylum procedures. Over 3,400 Syrians have been granted asylum or other forms of leave since the crisis in Syria began in 2011. Furthermore, Syrian asylum seekers who are not being accommodated by the Government, can choose to live in any local authority area.

In addition to this the Home Secretary launched the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation (VPR) scheme last January to provide sanctuary for those displaced Syrians who are most at risk, particularly survivors of torture and violence, women and children at risk and those in need of medical care.

Following the launch of this scheme the Home Secretary wrote to the Chairman of the Local Government Association on 11 February 2014 encouraging local authority participation and this letter has been cascaded across local authorities. So far, three local authorities have received refugees under the scheme and we continue to engage closely with additional local authorities who have expressed an interest in participation. We therefore remain confident that we can continue to meet the needs of arrivals in the UK under the scheme as planned but we welcome further offers of support from other local authorities as the scheme progresses.

Full costs borne by the local authorities will not be known until the refugees have been in UK for a full 12 months. Costs will depend on the particular vulnerabilities of those brought to the UK, and we are keeping costs under close review.

Central government is responsible for the overall funding of the scheme, but we will recover costs wherever possible, including from international aid funding schemes and potential EU funding schemes. We have put forward proposals to obtain funding from the new EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and are hopeful of a positive outcome. The UK’s National Programme is yet to be agreed and until this is signed off by the EU Commission, costs to the Home Office specifically will not be finalised.

Ninety people were relocated to the UK under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation (VPR) scheme between the first group of arrivals on 25 March and the end of September. This is the latest publicly available figure, as numbers are released as part of the Home Office official statistics each quarter. The number of arrivals under the scheme up to the end of December 2014 will be published on 26 February.

We have said that we expect the scheme to help several hundred people over three years, and we remain on track to deliver that commitment.

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