Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what specific steps they are taking to ensure that refugee children in Greece are treated in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and enjoy the Convention rights to survival, protection and education.

The Greek government is leading on support to refugee children. The UK contributes to these efforts via the European Union who has allocated more than €1 billion of funding to Greece to help it deal with the migration crisis.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Home Office are in frequent contact with the Greek authorities, both at official and ministerial level, to discuss the situation for migrants including children in Greece. The UK is also providing support to help the Greek authorities, European Asylum Support Office (EASO) and the European Commission deal with flows of migrants, including by deploying experts and interpreters on the Greek islands as well as specialists to the EU Commission team in Athens.

Further, as announced by the Home Secretary on 19 January this year, the Government has amended the eligibility date for section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016, to ensure that Greece is able to transfer some of the most vulnerable unaccompanied migrant children to the UK.