Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the UK is taking to provide support for refugee children in (a) Europe and (b) the UK.

The UK has contributed significantly to hosting, supporting and protecting the most vulnerable children affected by the migration crisis. In the year ending September 2016, we granted asylum or another form of leave to over 8,000 children in the UK. The Government has also established a £10 million Refugee Children Fund to support the needs of vulnerable refugee and migrant children arriving in Europe.

In 2016, we transferred over 900 unaccompanied asylum seeking children from within Europe to the UK. More eligible children will be transferred from Europe under the Immigration Act 2016 in the coming months and we will continue to meet our obligations under the Dublin Regulation to reunite asylum seeking children with their close families.

Unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children are supported by local authorities in accordance with the relevant children’s legislation in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In July last year the Government introduced the National Transfer Scheme to ensure there is a more even distribution of caring responsibilities for unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children across the country. To support the scheme, the Home Office significantly increased the funding available to local authorities for the care and support of unaccompanied children.