Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase the number of eligible child refugees who are able to enter the UK.
The UK operates several resettlement schemes: Gateway, Mandate, the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) and the Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme (VCRS), working closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to provide a safe and legal route to the UK for the most vulnerable refugees. Moreover, our Family Reunion policy allow children to join their refugee parents, and there are also specific provisions that allow extended family members lawfully resident in the UK to sponsor unaccompanied children where there are serious and compelling circumstances.
The UK is also committed to close cooperation and collaboration with EU partners, to ensure the efficient and timely operation of the Dublin Regulation and national relocation schemes, namely to relocate and support unaccompanied children under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016. The UK provided protection to almost 6,000 children in 2017 and more than 28,000 since the start of 2010.