Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the number of Syrian refugees who have yet to return to Syria.

The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, provides authoritative assessments on displacement. It estimates there are over 6.6 million Syrian refugees worldwide, of which 5.5 million are hosted in countries near Syria, notably Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

The UK is grateful for the role refugee-hosting countries play. We will continue to provide support to displaced population, including in response to the 6 February earthquake, which has affected Syrians in both Turkey and Syria itself. We urge the Asad regime to engage meaningfully with the UN-facilitated political process in order to achieve conditions suitable for safe refugee returns.