To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications from unaccompanied children her Department is considering under the Dublin III Regulation.

The Dublin III Regulation is a long-standing mechanism between EU Member States to determine responsibility for examining asylum claims. It is not an application route for transfer to the UK. At present we do not publish data on cases covered by the Dublin Regulation. Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, regularly publishes Member State figures, which can be found at:

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Dublin_statistics_on_countries_responsible_for_asylum_application

The Government has committed to publishing regular updates on the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children transferred to the UK from Europe, including those transferred under the Dublin III Regulation. This data will be published in the coming months.

Under the Dublin III Regulation, the UK has two months from receiving a request from another participating Member State to accept or reject responsibility for processing the asylum claim. Within this two month period, the Home Office will undertake a number of mandatory checks, including security and a local authority assessment. Where possible, the Home Office will decide cases ahead of the two month deadline.

Once a Dublin request has been accepted, the Regulation provides that the sending Member State has six months to enact the transfer. The Home Office works closely with EU Member State partners to enact transfers as soon as possible and ahead of the six month timeframe.