To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations in December 2016 by Save the Children and UNICEF concerning the situation of child refugees in France, Italy and Greece, and, in particular, the case for improving family reunion rules.
Answered on
23 January 2017
We welcome the recognition from Save the Children and UNICEF that the Government has made progress in facilitating the transfer of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to the UK, and we will consider the recommendations made when developing future policy in this area.
In 2016, we welcomed over 900 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to the UK, including more than 750 from France as part of the UK’s support for the Calais camp clearance - almost half of the unaccompanied children who were in the camp at the time of the clearance.
We continue to work closely with partners across Europe to ensure the timely and efficient operation of the Dublin Regulation, including the family reunification provisions. We have seconded experts to France and Greece, and we have a long-standing secondee in Italy to support the work on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in Europe.