Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to identify biomedical researchers and academics amongst Syrian refugees and make arrangements for them to enter the United Kingdom and to assist them in finding relevant employment.

The Syrian Vulnerable Persons' Resettlement (VPR) scheme will continue to prioritise the most vulnerable: people requiring urgent medical treatment, survivors of torture and violence, and women and children at risk. We are discussing with the UNCHR and other partners the extent to which the current criteria should be extended to ensure that a greater number of people qualify for the scheme.

Beneficiaries of the scheme will have full right to work in the UK and will be able to seek employment subject to meeting appropriate professional standards. There are no plans specifically to target medical practitioners, medical students or any other professional group because the scheme is a humanitarian one based on the protection needs of individual refugees, not their professional qualifications.