Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with European Union counterparts on refugees in the Central African Republic.

The UK has held discussions with other European countries on supporting the population of the Central African Republic (CAR) including refugees hosted by CAR (1,848 Congolese refugees: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) February 2019). My officials have attended recent meetings on Bêkou – the EU multi-donor Trust Fund for CAR and its extension. We remain supportive of the Bêkou Trust Fund and its activities, which contribute to alleviating the suffering of Central Africans, and the small number of refugees hosted by CAR will continue.

The UK has provided over £111m of funding to CAR and CAR refugees in Cameroon and Chad since 2014. We are committed in our support for the crisis, affecting Central Africans in CAR and the region.