To ask Her Majesty's Government how much was spent on the wars in Iraq; and how much has been spent subsequently on assisting (1) translators who helped the UK during the wars, and (2) refugees from Iraq displaced by the wars to settle in the UK.
Answered on
9 October 2020
The costs of Operation TELIC, under which all UK military operations in Iraq were conducted from 2003-2011, were £8.164 billion. Operation SHADER, which is working to ensure the lasting defeat of Daesh in Syria and in Iraq cost £1.899 billion to 2019/20. The scheme that we had in place to assist Iraqis who worked for our forces during the conflict - and in certain cases relocate them to the UK - closed in 2010. It is difficult to quantify how much was spent on assisting refugees displaced by the wars in Iraq to settle in the UK. Iraq was the second most common nationality of resettled refugees in the UK between 2010-2019- with 1,876 Iraqi refugees resettled.