Asylum: Children

(asked on 18th October 2018) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that minors in Calais with family in the UK are able to access family reunification procedures.


Answered by
Caroline Nokes Portrait
Caroline Nokes
This question was answered on 23rd October 2018

We continue to meet our commitments under the Dublin Regulation to ensure unaccompanied children with qualifying family in the UK can be transferred to the UK from Europe to have their asylum claim assessed as quickly as possible.

We are working closely with French authorities and non-governmental organisations in France to support the identification and transfer of eligible children under Dublin. We have allocated a £3.6 million Dublin development fund, as part of the Sandhurst Treaty signed between the UK and France in January 2018, to identify projects to support eligible claims through the asylum process and ensure those who are ineligible for transfer to the UK are informed of their options.

The Treaty also includes a commitment to reduce timescales for decisions and transfers under Dublin. A UK asylum liaison officer has been deployed to France to support the process.

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