Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Written Statement of 8 February 2017, HCWS467, on immigration, on what date she decided to change the number of unaccompanied child refugees taken by the UK under the Dubs amendment.

There is no change to the number of unaccompanied children to be transferred to the UK under section 67 of the Immigration Act. Under the Immigration Act we made a commitment to transfer a specified number of unaccompanied refugee children to the UK, following consultation with local authorities on capacity.

On 8 February, the Government announced that we will transfer the specified number of 350 children to the UK under section 67 of the Immigration Act. This includes the more than 200 children already transferred from France as part of the UK’s support for the Calais camp clearance.

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, the UK granted asylum or another form of leave to over 8,000 children. By the end of this Parliament, we will have resettled 20,000 Syrian nationals through our Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme and a further 3,000 of the most vulnerable children and their families from the Middle East and North Africa region under the Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme.