Asked by: Lord Dubs (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme dependent visas have been issued to family members of Afghans resettled in the UK under Pathway 1 of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
At 4th November 2022:
Whilst I am not able to provide a breakdown of this data for family members, work is underway to assure information relating to all the individuals relocated under the ARAP and ACRS on case working systems. Once this work concludes, further statistics on both schemes - including the number of people resettled under each - will be included in the published Immigration Statistics.
Asked by: Lord Dubs (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people they expect to resettle under Pathway 2 of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme in the first year of this pathway.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
We anticipate receiving referrals from UNHCR for up to 2,000 refugees during the first year of this pathway and this number will be kept under review.
The pace of arrivals in any particular period will necessarily depend on some key factors, including the flow of referrals from UNHCR, and the availability of suitable accommodation and support in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Dubs (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied child refugees have been admitted to the UK under (1) section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016, and (2) the Dublin Treaty, since 2016.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Over 220 children were transferred to the UK under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 when the Calais camp was cleared in late 2016. Since then we have been making continuous progress towards achieving our commitment of relocating 480 unaccompanied children. We will publish the current number of transfers under section 67 on 21 May 2020 along with the publication of the quarterly immigration statistics.
Between 2016 and 2019, 590 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children were transferred to the UK under articles 8.1 and 8.2 of the Dublin III Regulation – the two principle articles in Dublin that allow an unaccompanied child to join a family member lawfully present in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Dubs (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the total value of the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived; and how much the UK was allocated from that fund in the financial years (1) 2017–18, and (2) 2018–19.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The UK allocation from the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) was €3.94m for the 2014-20 period. FEAD operates on a funding year which differs from the standard financial year; the FEAD year runs 1st January to 31st December, and funding is allocated for the full 7-year programme. There is not a set amount allocated for each financial year, so the specific information in the question on allocation of funds for the year 2017 and 2018 is not available.
The funding information for the period 2014-20 is set out in detail at sections 1-7 in the published Explanatory Memorandum dated 23rd January 2018, reference 14699/18 COM (18)742, which is available at: http://europeanmemoranda.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/files/2019/01/EM_14699_18.pdf
Asked by: Lord Dubs (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to continue the Vulnerable Persons Refugee Scheme after 2020.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
We are making positive progress in our work with key stakeholders and international organisations on our future Asylum and Resettlement Strategy. This includes consideration of the UK’s resettlement offer beyond 2020.
Asked by: Lord Dubs (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are their priorities for the European Migration Fund; and what is the size of the fund in the present financial year.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), to which this question presumably relates, is operated in the UK by the AMIF UK Responsible Authority. The total value of the fund to the UK is currently €538.2m.
AMIF operates on a funding year different to the financial year, the AMIF year runs 16 October to 15 October, furthermore funding is allocated for the full 7-year programme.
In agreeing the AMIF UK National Programme with the European Commission, the UK proposed an even spending plan across the programme, and the funds can be utilised flexibly across the programme, so the spending plan is only a rough guide.
There is not a set amount allocated for the current financial year. To date the UK has utilised €372m, this figure includes both expenditure and funding committed by grant agreement. In addition, the Responsible Authority is currently undertaking an open call for proposals for integration related activities for a value of up to £50m.
Asked by: Lord Dubs (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the European Migration Fund is being allocated to local authorities and in particular to child refugees.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), to which this question presumably relates, is operated in the UK by the AMIF UK Responsible Authority. The total value of the fund to the UK is currently €538.2m.
Funding is not allocated directly to local authorities unless they have applied for funding through an open call for proposals operated by the Responsible Authority, one of which is currently open with £50m available for organisations to apply for, for integration related activities for third country nationalS, including refugees. The Home Office, as the department with responsibility for migration, is also able to apply for AMIF funds, and has received a significant amount of AMIF funds to date.
There is no particular amount allocated to managing child refugees. A full list of funded projects is published each August on the AMIF page of www.gov.uk along with the UK National Programme and information about calls for
proposals.
Asked by: Lord Dubs (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Crown Territories, in particular the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey, about the possibility that they will take part in receiving (1) unaccompanied child refugees in Europe, and (2) refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey under existing schemes for refugee families.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
In the early stages of developing the UK's response to the refugee crisis, conversations were held between the UK Government and the Crown Dependencies to explore whether the infrastructure and capacity existed in the Crown Dependencies to support the resettlement of refugees under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. Any offers of capacity and support for the UK schemes now or in the future are welcome.
Asked by: Lord Dubs (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children in total have been transferred to the UK to date under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016; and of the remaining places, how many children in total have been allocated a place but have not yet been transferred to the UK.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
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.
Asked by: Lord Dubs (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children initially relocated to the UK under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 have subsequently been reunited with family members; and whether those relocations will be included in the specified number of 480 children to be transferred under section 67 of that Act.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Dublin Regulation establishes a clear mechanism for unaccompanied children who have claimed asylum in another EU Member State to be transferred here to have their asylum claim assessed if they have a qualifying family member legally present in the UK, and where transfer is in the child’s best interests.
Unaccompanied children who are relocated to the UK under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 are placed in the care of a local authority. Any child relocated under section 67 occupying a space offered by a local authority will count towards the specified number of 480. Local authorities will review a child’s care needs on an ongoing basis. If a child has relatives in the UK, the local authority may subsequently decide that placement with that family is in the child’s best interests. However, this is a decision for local authorities, not the Home Office.