Refugees: France

(asked on 1st May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what funding her Department is providing to its French counterparts under the (a) 2015 Joint Declaration and (b) 2018 Sandhurst Agreement to assist with the response to the covid-19 outbreak in displaced settlements in Calais and Dunkirk.


Answered by
Chris Philp Portrait
Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
This question was answered on 7th May 2020

The identification and relocation of vulnerable migrants on French territory remains the domestic responsibility of the French government. We will continue to work collaboratively with France under the terms of the Sandhurst Treaty, as signed in 2018.

The UK is also committed to meeting our obligations to transfer unaccompanied children to the UK where they have eligible family here and where transfer is in their best interests under the Dublin Regulation. An unaccompanied child must first claim asylum in the EU Member State in which they are present, and the Member State must then raise a Take Charge Request with the UK Government.

The UK is not currently providing funding to France under these agreements to assist with the Covid-19 outbreak. The transfer of individuals into reception centres remains an issue of domestic responsibility for the French government; as noted in our response to Question 37581, over 600 migrants have so far volunteered to move into reception centres.

Reticulating Splines