Speeches

Stuart McDonald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart McDonald on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Syrian refugees from each UN camp she expects to be resettled in the UK in 2015.

Richard Harrington

The Prime Minister has said that we want to see 1,000 Syrian refugees brought to the UK by Christmas. The Government is working closely with local authorities, international delivery partners and the voluntary sector, putting in place the plans and structures to deliver this and ensuring the system is scaled up in a way that protects the interests of all concerned. Details on numbers will be published in the regular quarterly immigration statistics.

The UNHCR identifies and proposes Syrian refugees for the VPR scheme from among the whole of the registered refugee population in the region, over 4 million people. This includes people in formal refugee camps, informal settlements and host communities. Therefore, not all of those coming to the UK for resettlement will be coming from UN camps.