Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support the Government provides to survivors of sexual violence among the Yazidi people in Iraq and Syria.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The UK has provided significant support to survivors of sexual violence, including Yazidis, in both Iraq and Syria.
Besides humanitarian assistance, UK support to survivors of sexual violence in Iraq has been primarily through the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh (UNITAD), to which the UK has contributed £2 million. UNITAD has a stand-alone Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Children's Unit, created to address the unique gender aspects of Daesh crimes; a Victim and Witness Support Unit, which has developed a strategy to incorporate safeguards and protections for vulnerable groups; and psychologists to provide support to victims and witnesses.
In Syria we have supported many efforts to assist survivors of sexual violence. These include projects to map and vet support services for survivors of sexual violence; train doctors to provide forensic medical reports; produce in depth case files on the Daesh slave trade; and train first responders for child and adult survivors. We have also allocated nearly £30 million to the UN Population Fund to help reduce and mitigate gender-based violence and provide life-saving sexual and reproductive health services.
As part of the UK's continued global leadership on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, the UK will host an International Conference in November entitled "Time for Justice: Putting Survivors First" to galvanise the world into further action.
Asked by: Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much financial support, if any, they plan to provide for psychological services to those members of the Yazidi community captured by ISIS and now returned to Iraq.
Answered by Lord Bates
UK humanitarian support is distributed on the basis of need, to ensure civilians are not discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion or ethnicity. However, we remain concerned about appalling crimes committed against minorities in Syria and Iraq, including the Yezidi community. We expect our partners, including the UN and NGOs which implement our aid programmes, to ensure they are doing all they can to support the most vulnerable people, including those who have suffered religious persecution.
In Iraq, UK aid is primarily delivered through UN OCHA's Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund (IHF), to which the UK was the largest donor in 2018. The IHF is the main international humanitarian mechanism in Iraq and health - including psychosocial support - is its largest component. Work to provide healthcare services to 1.2 million more people this year, including Yezidis, has already begun. UK aid has also enabled the UN Trust Fund to support the Free Yezidi Foundation which runs a centre in Northern Iraq providing access to a psychologist and a trauma programme for women and children who have suffered under Daesh. The UK is providing £75,000 in support to the SEED Foundation which delivers gender-focused mental health and psycho-social support training in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This work will benefit women from many communities across the Kurdistan Region, including Yezidis.
In Syria, UK aid has provided more than £40 million this financial year to support the most vulnerable people in areas liberated from Daesh. Across Northeast Syria, this includes mental health support, child protection and education, support to demining and assisting survivors of Gender-Based Violence.
Asked by: Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much financial support, if any, they plan to provide for psychological services to those members of the Yazidi community captured by ISIS and now located in Syria.
Answered by Lord Bates
UK humanitarian support is distributed on the basis of need, to ensure civilians are not discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion or ethnicity. However, we remain concerned about appalling crimes committed against minorities in Syria and Iraq, including the Yezidi community. We expect our partners, including the UN and NGOs which implement our aid programmes, to ensure they are doing all they can to support the most vulnerable people, including those who have suffered religious persecution.
In Iraq, UK aid is primarily delivered through UN OCHA's Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund (IHF), to which the UK was the largest donor in 2018. The IHF is the main international humanitarian mechanism in Iraq and health - including psychosocial support - is its largest component. Work to provide healthcare services to 1.2 million more people this year, including Yezidis, has already begun. UK aid has also enabled the UN Trust Fund to support the Free Yezidi Foundation which runs a centre in Northern Iraq providing access to a psychologist and a trauma programme for women and children who have suffered under Daesh. The UK is providing £75,000 in support to the SEED Foundation which delivers gender-focused mental health and psycho-social support training in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This work will benefit women from many communities across the Kurdistan Region, including Yezidis.
In Syria, UK aid has provided more than £40 million this financial year to support the most vulnerable people in areas liberated from Daesh. Across Northeast Syria, this includes mental health support, child protection and education, support to demining and assisting survivors of Gender-Based Violence.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support and resettle (a) Yazidi, (b) Christian and (c) other religious or ethnic minority Syrian refugees.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Department for International Development work alongside the Home Office on the resettlement of refugees. The UK works in accordance to the humanitarian principles of impartiality and neutrality which means that we do not take into consideration the ethno-religious origins of people requiring assistance as we resettle solely on the basis of needs, identified by UNHCR through their established submission categories.
To protect the privacy of those being resettled and to support their recovery and integration, we limit the amount of information made publicly available and therefore do not publish a religious and ethnic breakdown of those who have been resettled.
The Home Office are working with UNHCR and other partners to intensify their outreach to groups that might otherwise be reluctant to register for fear of stigma/ discrimination and those who may be unaware of the safe space and options available to them. This includes all religious minorities.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) Yazidi, (b) Christian and (c) other religious or ethnic minority Syrian refugees have been resettled in the UK in each quarter since the start of 2016.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
In resettlement, the UK works according to the humanitarian principles of impartiality and neutrality which means that we do not take into consideration the ethno-religious origins of people requiring assistance as we resettle solely on the basis of needs, identified by UNHCR through their established submission categories.
We believe that one way to protect the privacy of those being resettled and ensure their recovery and integration is to limit the amount of information about them that we make publicly available. We therefore do not believe it is appropriate to publish a religious and ethnic breakdown of those who have been resettled.
We are working with UNHCR and other partners to intensify their outreach to groups that might otherwise be reluctant to register for fear of stigma/discrimination and unaware of the safe space and options available to them. This includes all religious minorities.
In all of the countries from which we resettle Syrian refugees, mobile registration teams, outreach teams, and Help Desks for areas where different minority groups are concentrated are used to facilitate registration and access to services. This is all part of an effort to facilitate registration for those refugees who for whatever reason cannot, or choose not, to access the main registration offices.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to support and resettle (a) Yazidi, (b) Christian and (c) other religious or ethnic minority Syrian refugees.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
In resettlement, the UK works according to the humanitarian principles of impartiality and neutrality which means that we do not take into consideration the ethno-religious origins of people requiring assistance as we resettle solely on the basis of needs, identified by UNHCR through their established submission categories.
We believe that one way to protect the privacy of those being resettled and ensure their recovery and integration is to limit the amount of information about them that we make publicly available. We therefore do not believe it is appropriate to publish a religious and ethnic breakdown of those who have been resettled.
We are working with UNHCR and other partners to intensify their outreach to groups that might otherwise be reluctant to register for fear of stigma/discrimination and unaware of the safe space and options available to them. This includes all religious minorities.
In all of the countries from which we resettle Syrian refugees, mobile registration teams, outreach teams, and Help Desks for areas where different minority groups are concentrated are used to facilitate registration and access to services. This is all part of an effort to facilitate registration for those refugees who for whatever reason cannot, or choose not, to access the main registration offices.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Christian, Yazidi and Shia minorities in Iraq are considered as vulnerable people in terms of UK humanitarian assistance; and if so, how this status is factored into UK aid programming both in Iraq and countries hosting refugees from these communities.
Answered by Lord Bates
The UK Government recognises the vulnerability of religious minorities in Iraq. DFID’s funding for Iraq and host countries of Iraqi refugees is based on humanitarian principles of neutrality and impartiality; and we aim to ensure that no one is excluded or discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, or religion, that the specific risks facing minorities are addressed and that our assistance reaches those who need it most, including vulnerable people from minority communities such as Yazidis, Shia and Christians. DFID regularly challenges our partners in Iraq and host countries of Iraqi refugees to demonstrate that they are doing all they can to meet the needs of the most vulnerable people, including those from religious minorities. We welcome information from all sources to help us to hold them to account.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Yazidi people have been admitted to the UK under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme prioritises the most vulnerable refugees, and that is why under the scheme UNHCR identifies refugees for resettlement using its established vulnerability criteria.
The UK resettles solely on the basis of needs, identified by UNHCR. Individuals , ethnic and religious background is not part of this consideration. We do not publish a religious or ethnic breakdown of those who have been resettled.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Turkey about reports of the aerial bombardment on 25 April in Derek in Northern Syria and Shingal in Iraq, which may have affected Yazidi people located in those areas.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
As a close ally and partner, we regularly discuss the situation in northern Syria and northern Iraq with the Turkish government. Turkey has a legitimate right to defend itself against the PKK. We have encouraged Turkey to work closely with Global Coalition partners, the Iraqi government and Kurdistan Region of Iraq in order to combat terrorist organisations like the PKK and Daesh.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people have been resettled under the Syrian vulnerable persons resettlement programme; and how many, as a number and as a percentage, came from the Christian or Yazidi communities.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office is committed to publishing data in an orderly way as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
Latest statistics published on 01 December confirmed that a total of 4,414 Syrians have been resettled under the scheme since it began, 4,162 of these arriving in the 12 months to the end of September 2016.
Religious affiliation of those resettled under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement (VPR) scheme is monitored, but not routinely reported.