Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Home Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Charlie Elphicke Excerpts
Monday 16th October 2017

(7 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Brandon Lewis Portrait Brandon Lewis
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We are working with other countries, which have their own national sovereignty. I was in Italy and Greece over the summer to talk about these programmes, and we are working with the Greek and French authorities to ensure that more children can come over and that we fulfil our duty. Let us bear in mind that when we get to the 480, the United Kingdom will have done more than other European countries, and we should be proud of that.

Charlie Elphicke Portrait Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)
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Will the Minister also look at the distribution of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children? About a quarter of the total are in Kent, but you won’t find many in the metropolitan borough of Wakefield.

Brandon Lewis Portrait Brandon Lewis
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My hon. Friend makes a good point. His county council in Kent is doing some fantastic work, and there are councils around the country making offers to do similar work. It would be good to see more councils coming forward to do that work, and I will be speaking to the Local Government Association this week about that very issue.