Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-12-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 2 December (HL3987), for each of the last five years and this year so far, (1) how many children who are dependants of British citizens and persons who are living legally in the UK have made asylum claims to the French authorities; (2) how many of those have been accepted; and (3) of those, how many have subsequently been reunited with their parents or other responsible family members in the UK.
Lord Bates
The UK does not hold statistical information of the number of asylum applications made in France by dependent children of British citizens or persons living legally in the UK or how many of these applications have been accepted by the French. Statistics for transfers of asylum applicants from France to the UK on the basis of family ties are not routinely recorded.
We will consider any request made to us by the French asylum authorities to take responsibility for an asylum applicant in France because they have close family in the UK in accordance with the terms of the Dublin Regulation concerning the principle of family unity and the best interests of the child. This is subject to an applicant first claiming asylum in France. If they do not wish to claim asylum, individual migrants in France as in any other country, are entitled to apply under the Family Reunion provisions to join relatives in the UK by making the appropriate application.
