Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what responses they received to letters from the then Home Secretary to her counterparts in 2017 in France, Greece and Italy inviting referrals of eligible unaccompanied asylum-seeking children for transfer to the UK; how many referrals have been made since; and how many have been accepted.

The previous Home Secretary received responses from each of the participating States and we have since been working with each of them at a Ministerial and official level to ensure safe transfer of unaccompanied children to the UK. We have received referrals from all participating States and the process is ongoing.

We remain fully committed to delivering our commitment to transfer the specified number of 480 children under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 and are working very closely with participating States, to deliver the scheme in line with their national laws. Over 220 children are already in the UK. We will not provide a running commentary on numbers and will publish the details once all children are in the UK.