Asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno To ask Her
Majesty’s Government whether they will make arrangements through
refugee organisations for the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary
to visit refugee camps. The Minister of State, Department for
International Development (Lord Bates) (Con) While it
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Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will make
arrangements through refugee organisations for the Prime
Minister and the Home Secretary to visit refugee camps.
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The Minister of State, Department for International
Development (Lord Bates) (Con)
While it is not appropriate to discuss future ministerial
plans, we welcome the opportunity to demonstrate the UK’s
commitment to refugees. Responding to unprecedented need,
in 2015-16 the UK spent more than £1.4 billion on
humanitarian assistance, including support for refugees.
The UK’s pioneering new approach to protracted crises,
leading to a shift from short-term assistance to
longer-term change, is providing real help to those in
need.
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(LD)
My Lords, I am sorry but the Minister has not answered my
Question. The Prime Minister should be asked to visit the
refugee camps to see the situation for herself. Will the
Minister affirm very clearly that there is no diminution at
all in our pledge to welcome 20,000 refugees and up to
3,000 youngsters in the course of this Parliament?
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I accept that, but also in this context, the Foreign
Secretary has been to a refugee camp, and the Secretary of
State for International Development was in one of the camps
just last week. Perhaps even more importantly, the Prime
Minister was at the Valletta summit last week, where she
announced an additional £30 million package for the very
people the noble Lord and I care so much about.
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(Lab)
My Lords, I would be much happier if the Prime Minister
spent time writing a full-page article for the Daily Mail
explaining why international development is so important
and why aid is so important to host nations in the Middle
East whose own countries are suffering as a consequence of
the influx of refugees. Will he urge the Prime Minister to
do that?
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It behoves all of us who are strong advocates and
supporters of the 0.7%, as I know that the noble Lord and
his party are as well, to do everything we can to highlight
the benefits that the UK is bringing around the world to
those areas most in need. We have been able to help
something approaching 20 million people in the region as a
result of the generosity of British taxpayers, and our
money is genuinely saving lives. That is the point that we
need to make loudly and clearly to the British public and
the media.
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(CB)
My Lords, how many officials do we have in France to
identify adults and children who qualify to seek refuge in
Britain? Those people are both in reception centres and
outside them. Are our people receiving good co-operation
from the French authorities?
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Some people from the Home Office have been relocated to
France, in particular to their Interior Ministry. More
importantly, in a lot of the projects in which we are
involved—programmes such as the Syrian vulnerable persons
resettlement scheme and the vulnerable children’s
resettlement scheme—we work very closely with the UNHCR.
That body has established criteria for working out who are
the people most in need and who therefore ought to be
prioritised to come to this country.
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(CB)
My Lords, how many children have actually come here under
that arrangement?
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The commitment was for 20,000 in the lifetime of this
Parliament. As of December, 4,400 people have arrived, of
whom 50% were children, so 2,200. In 2015, some 8,000
children were granted asylum through schemes in this
country. Under the other schemes that we have, particularly
the vulnerable children’s resettlement scheme, the number
is something like 700, and there was a further number under
the scheme of the noble Lord, , which I think we will come
to in a minute.
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(Lab)
My Lords, the Minister anticipated my question because
there are refugee camps in Greece as well, where the
condition is dire. Would the Minister care to confirm the
news that we have heard about the Government intending to
bring to an end the scheme under Section 67 of the
Immigration Act, which would have brought unaccompanied
child refugees to this country from Greece?
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A Written Ministerial Statement will underscore that, far
from doing that, Section 67 of the Act—and I pay tribute to
the noble Lord’s work on that—stands. Under that scheme,
some 200 children have been brought to this country
already. I know that the noble Lord also visited the Greek
reception area and saw the conditions for himself, but
there is also the work that DfID personnel are doing on the
ground there, trying to provide help.
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(LD)
My Lords, do the Government recognise that there are many
informal refugee camps in Greece and Italy? Will Ministers
visit those and familiarise themselves with the huge
suffering and plight of those children there? Secondly,
will the Minister confirm that of the more than 25,000
unaccompanied refugee children in Italy, only three have
been transferred to the UK?
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We have schemes for identifying that. Certainly, the noble
Baroness is right to identify a major problem, which is that
half of those categorised as refugees are not in registered
camps. That is often one of the greatest difficulties we have
in reaching those people who are in need. The important thing
is that the schemes we have committed to in this House are
working and delivering benefits. Thousands of people have
come to this country, which compares favourably with the EU
internal resettlement scheme, which has so far helped only
170.
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(Lab)
My Lords, repeated Questions to Ministers here have failed to
answer this question. I know that local authorities are given
additional funding initially, when communities welcome
refugees, but the British people who are prepared to accept
refugees into their communities need to know that funding
will continue for as long as the refugees need extra funds
for all the services they use. Will the Minister assure the
House that extra funding will continue as long as the need
exists?
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I can do more than that. One reason it has taken a little
time to respond to the amendment to the Immigration Act of
the noble Lord, , is our requirement to
consult local authorities about was needed. So far, 175 local
authorities have offered to host refugees and they have
people travelling to their regions. They deserve tribute. In
recognition of that, we have also announced that the amount
they will get per year has increased by an average of 20%
over the period to help them to deal with the very needs that
the noble Baroness has identified.
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