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>
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>
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>
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: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-july-to-september-2017-data-tables<\/a>.<\/p>
In addition, the Home Office published a one-off data publication on the number of children transferred from France as part of the UK\u2019s comprehensive support for the Calais camp clearance in autumn 2016. The data is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transfers-of-children-to-the-uk-from-the-calais-operation-november-2017<\/a>
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>"}
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