Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 9 November (HL11255), whether they will report regularly to Parliament on (1) how "comprehensive support and accurate information" are being provided to vulnerable migrants now in continental Europe, (2) the progress of their vulnerable person re-settlement scheme, and (3) the application of the Dublin Regulation to the family reunification of unaccompanied children.
We have allocated a £3.6 million Dublin development fund, as part of the Sandhurst Treaty signed between the UK and France in January 2018, to identify projects to support eligible claims through the asylum process and ensure those who are ineligible for transfer to the UK are informed of their options. We are in the process of transferring these funds and will continue to work with the French Government to implement this work. We will update Parliament as and when we have relevant information to share.
As of June 2018, a total of 12,851 people had been resettled in the UK under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) since it began across 288 local authorities. The Home Office is committed to publishing data in an orderly way as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The statistics are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release. We are confident that the VPRS is on track to deliver the commitment. More refugees are arriving every month and the figure for resettlement continues to rise.
On 30 November 2017, the Government published data on the numbers of children transferred to the UK from the Calais camp clearance. The data can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transfers-of-children-to-the-uk-from-the-calais-operation-november-2017
On 22 February 2018, the Home Office published data on the number of transfers into the UK from other Dublin states. The relevant statistics can be found at as_22_q, asylum volume 5 at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2017-data-tables. 2018 Dublin data will be published in February