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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what special education programmes are being provided for those Iraqis and Syrians who have reached the UK since 2012, broken down into those for (1) children, (2) young people, and (3) adults.

Lord Bates

Asylum seekers and those granted refugee status or humanitarian protection have access to free state schooling. Those granted refugee status have immediate access to student support for higher education courses.

Local authorities in England are responsible for providing additional educational support, such as English language training.

Where schools need to provide additional support for English as an Additional Language (EAL) pupils the funding arrangements enable local authorities to allocate a proportion of their funding to schools on the basis of the number of pupils in each school who have EAL and who have been in the school system for a maximum of three years.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will reinstate legal aid for qualifying UK residents seeking to re-unite with their immediate family members from overseas; and if not, why not.

Lord Keen of Elie

Our limited legal aid resources should be available for the highest priority cases and to the most financially vulnerable. There are no plans to change the legal aid arrangements for family reunion. As with all cases outside the scope of legal aid, exceptional funding may be available where required under ECHR or EU law.

Guidance to support applications for family reunion is available from the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI). UKVI issue guidance to help applicants, and the types of evidence requested to accompany an application – such as marriage and birth certificates – will usually be straightforward to collate.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many refugees from Syria and Iraq have been accepted by Saudi Arabia and each of the Gulf States; and whether other migrants from Syria and Iraq have also been absorbed into those two countries.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The UK actively engages with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, including Saudi Arabia, on humanitarian and development assistance, and the Gulf States continue to contribute generously to humanitarian support for the Syria crisis. The Gulf States are not signatories to the UN Refugee Convention of 1951, and there is no legal refugee status in these countries. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are living in Gulf States as migrant workers or on visitors’ visas.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they are having with the government of France about refugees and migrants near Calais and Dunkirk; whether those discussions include the provision of better information for camp dwellers and better coordination of volunteers and relief supplies; and when they will report to Parliament about those discussions.

Lord Bates

The Government is in regular discussion with French counterparts at ministerial and official level on all aspects of the migrant situation in Northern France.

In line with the UK-France Joint Declaration signed in August 2015, both countries carry out joint communications visits to the camps in Calais and Dunkirk to inform migrants about their rights and responsibilities.

The coordination of volunteers, charities and NGOs in France is the responsibility of the French authorities. However, the UK has issued advice for UK residents who want to help or donate to support migrants in Calais. The advice, offered directly on the FCO travel advice website (https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france) is to give to registered and experienced humanitarian charities who are best placed to distribute donations in an organised manner.

Ministers regularly update Parliament on all aspects of the situation in Northern France.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the UK’s status as the largest European donor for relief in Syria and Iraq, and for refugee services elsewhere, what progress they are making toward greater burden-sharing within the EU and the European Economic Area in proportion to each country’s income per head.

Baroness Verma

The UK has been at the forefront of the response to the Syrian crisis. To date, we have committed over £2.3 billion, our largest ever response to a humanitarian crisis. As a result of the rise of Daesh, a separate humanitarian crisis has also emerged in Iraq. To date, we have committed £79.5 million to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq.

We continue to play a leading role in encouraging the international community to contribute generously to the UN appeals. At the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference we co-hosted in London on 4 February 2016, leaders came together to pledge more than $11 billion, the largest amount raised in one day for a humanitarian crisis. The money pledged at the Conference will save lives, give hope and give people a chance for the future.

We welcome the generous pledge of $2.5 billion in immediate and long-term funding from Germany at the Conference. Likewise, the EU pledged €915 million for 2016, €1.275 billion for 2017-20 and a further €200 million in concessional finance. Like the UK, Germany and the EU have pledged much more than in previous years.