Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2016 to Question 49716, what further progress has been made by her Department in processing refugee family reunion applications for unaccompanied children in France with family ties in the UK; and how many family reunion applications (a) are still outstanding and (b) were closed without a decision being made because the applicant went missing.

As part of the UK’s support for the Calais camp clearance, we welcomed more than 750 children to the UK. Many have been reunited with family members already in the UK, while others are being cared for by local authorities across the UK.

We supported the French in their efforts to move all children from the camp in Calais to safe alternative accommodation across France. Home Office staff, interpreters and social workers visited the specialist centres in France to carry out the necessary assessments and we inter-viewed all children who were present in the specialist centres at the time they visited. The phase of the Calais operation immediately following the dismantling of the camps has concluded, barring a few outstanding cases which are still being considered for transfer.

There is no application process under the Dublin Regulation, which determines the Member State responsible for processing an asylum claim. We will continue to meet our obligations under the Dublin Regulation and accept responsibility for processing asylum claims where the UK is determined to be the responsible Member State.