| answer text |
<p>The UK is fully committed to transferring the specified number of 480 unaccompanied
children under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 as soon as possible. Whilst
the Government is clear that we will not be amending the current legislation, after
extensive discussion with France, Greece and Italy, we have updated the eligibility
date on an exceptional basis to ensure we can transfer the circa. 260 remaining unaccompanied
children and meet our obligation under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016. We
are working closely with Member States and with relevant partners such as the UNHCR,
the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and NGOs to ensure the safe transfer
of children referred by each Member State to the UK. Over 220 children are already
here and transfers are ongoing.</p><p>Our Family Reunion policy allow children to
join their refugee parents, and there are also specific provisions that allow extended
family members lawfully resident in the UK to sponsor unaccompanied children where
there are serious and compelling circumstances. This policy is reflected in domestic
legislation and will be unaffected by our exit from the EU. We have reunited over
24,000 partners and children with their families under our family reunion policy in
the last five years.</p><p>Until we leave the EU, the UK remains bound by EU asylum
legislation, where we have opted in, including the Dublin Regulation. The Dublin III
Regulation is the mechanism to determine the Member State responsible for the consideration
of an asylum claim. We are considering the options to ensure effective cooperation
on the country responsible for processing asylum claims when we leave the EU. This
will be a key consideration as part of the process of establishing a new relationship
with our European partners.</p><p><br>The Home Office publishes data on asylum applications
and their outcomes from unaccompanied asylum seeking children who enter the UK. The
data are published in volume 3 of the asylum tables in the quarterly Immigration Statistics
release. The latest release includes data up to September 2017, is published here:
<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-july-to-september-2017-data-tables"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-july-to-september-2017-data-tables</a>.</p><p><br>In
addition, the Home Office published a one-off data publication on the number of children
transferred from France as part of the UK’s comprehensive support for the Calais camp
clearance in autumn 2016. The data is published here: <br><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transfers-of-children-to-the-uk-from-the-calais-operation-november-2017"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transfers-of-children-to-the-uk-from-the-calais-operation-november-2017</a><br>The
Home Office only returns an unaccompanied child with no lawful basis to remain in
the UK if it is satisfied that safe and adequate reception arrangements are in place
in the country to which they are to be removed.</p>
|
|
