Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to support asylum seekers fleeing Middle Eastern countries due to being persecuted because of their religious belief.

We are doing our utmost to provide assistance to all those in need in the region. The UK has now allocated £2.3 billion since 2012 to meet the immediate needs of vulnerable people in Syria and of refugees in the region making it one of the largest donors. Since summer 2014, we have committed £169.5 million in humanitarian assistance to help those affected by Daesh in Iraq.

In addition, the UK operates four resettlement schemes (Gateway, Mandate, the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement (VPR) Scheme and the Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme (VCRS), working closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on each to identify those most in need of resettlement, prioritising the most vulnerable.

The UK works according to the humanitarian principles of impartiality and neutrality which means that we do not take into consideration the ethno-religious origins of people requiring assistance as we assist solely on the basis of needs, identified by UNHCR.

All asylum claims lodged in the UK, including claims based on religious persecution, are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with our obligations under the Refugee Convention. Those who demonstrate a well founded fear on return to their country are normally granted protection.