Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Written Statement of 21 April 2016 on Refugees and Resettlement, HCWS687, how many of the 75 expert personnel will be working to identify and process individuals who are eligible for family reunification transfers to other EU countries under the Dublin III Regulation.

Pursuant to my statement of 21 April, HCWS687, the 75 UK expert personnel deployed to Greece to support implementation of the EU-Turkey Migration Agreement will conduct a number of duties. A proportion of the UK expert personnel will work closely with European Asylum Support Officer (EASO) coordinators and the Greek Asylum Service to process cases through the admissibility process and provide expert support to the Greek authorities and other EU partners on overall co-ordination of the response. Supporting the operation of the Greek asylum service is a fundamental part of this Government’s approach to identifying children in need of protection at the earliest possible opportunity and ensuring children are identified as eligible for family reunification consideration under the terms of Dublin Regulation.

This of course is in addition to the support that we are already providing to European partner Dublin Units. Following calls from EASO we have already deployed two UK experts to support the Greek Dublin Unit and a third is due to be deployed in May. We are also deploying an expert to the Italian Dublin Unit in May under the hotspot operation mission. This deployment is in addition to the long term support we are providing to the Italian Dublin through a bilateral agreement. We are confident that through our concerted joint efforts we can identify and facilitate the swift transfers of cases through our national systems and make effective use of the Dublin Regulation.