Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what further consideration have they given to taking in the quota of refugees from Syria suggested by the UN.

The Government is deeply concerned about the suffering and hardship caused by the Syrian conflict, and we are determined that the UK will continue to play our full part in responding to the humanitarian crisis.

The UK has donated £800 million in response to the crisis, making us the second largest bilateral donor after the USA, and helping to provide vital support to hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrians right across the region. Through the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation (VPR) scheme, we are also helping some of the most vulnerable Syrians who cannot be supported effectively in the region by offering them care and support in the UK, prioritising women and children at risk, people in severe need of medical care and survivors of torture and violence. The scheme runs in parallel to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) Syrian humanitarian admission programme, as we believe we can contribute most by basing our resettlement scheme on need rather than a fulfilling a quota. However, we have said we expect the scheme to help several hundred people over three years, and we remain firmly on track to achieve that. We are working closely with the UNHCR to identify the most vulnerable displaced Syrians, and bring them to the UK. Between the first arrivals in March 2014 and the end of March this year, 187 people arrived under the scheme, and groups continue to arrive on a regular basis. This is in addition to Syrians the UK has granted asylum under our normal rules; since the crisis began in 2011, we have granted asylum or other forms of leave to over 4,200 Syrian nationals.

However, with 3.9 million displaced Syrians in Syria’s neighbouring countries and millions more in need within Syria itself, protection in the UK can only ever help a minority of those who so desperately need help. The Government strongly believes that the UK can have the greatest impact by continuing to focus our efforts on substantial humanitarian aid to help provide support to the majority of displaced people who remain in the region and ease the burden on their host countries. By the end of September last year, UK aid had delivered over 8.7 million food rations (each of which feeds one person for one month), provided access to clean water for 1.5 million people per month, and over 1.3 million medical consultations in Syria and the region. The VPR scheme, which is the first resettlement scheme operated by the UK to target beneficiaries specifically on the basis of vulnerability, complements our aid by focusing on providing support in the UK to some of the most vulnerable displaced people who cannot be supported effectively in the region.

We therefore have no current plans to participate in a quota resettlement scheme; we believe that our current approach is the best way for the UK to help people who are suffering due to the crisis.