Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many (a) refugees from Syria and (b) unaccompanied refugee children from Europe have been settled in Northern Ireland in the last year; and if he will make a statement.

Under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement scheme, 309 Syrian refugees were resettled to Northern Ireland in 2016.

Unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children are supported by the relevant authorities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and in accordance with their respective children’s legislation. In July last year the Government introduced the National Transfer Scheme (NTS) to ensure there is a more even distribution of caring responsibilities for unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children across the country.

The Home Office are working to extend the transfer provisions in the Immigration Act 2016 to the devolved administrations. Building upon Northern Ireland's positive contribution to the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement scheme, the Home Office continues to be in contact with the Northern Ireland Executive regarding unaccompanied asylum seeking children. We remain open to any offers of NTS places from the relevant authorities in the devolved administrations however, no unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have been resettled in Northern Ireland under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 yet.