Written question asked by Baroness Tonge (Liberal Democrat), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Tunnicliffe (Labour) on Friday, 13 June 2008.

Yemen: Asylum Seekers

Question: asked Her Majesty's Government:What is their response to the recent call from the United Nations Refugee Agency on the international community to increase support for the Republic of Yemen to help it deal with the growing influx of African asylum seekers, who are mostly Somalis.

Answer: The UK Government have been supporting those organisations best placed to meet the refugee challenge for a number of years. The UK provides 17 per cent of the funds of the European Commission (EC) development budget of which €1.7 million has been provided to UNHCR in Yemen for the period January 2008 until mid-2009. This funding supports activities including risk assessment for vulnerable groups, improved reception and registration and provision of basic services for refugees. All of these activities are co-ordinated with other organisations which are supporting programmes for refugees (for example, the Danish refugee council, ADRA, Save the Children Sweden). The UK also provides core funding to the UNHCR directly, a proportion of which will support operations in the Yemen. In 2006 (latest figures available) this support was $51.9 million. The support to EC and UNHCR is additional to the UK's core development programme in the Yemen. In recognition of the Yemen's high levels of poverty and low levels of aid received from all donors, the UK decided in 2006 to scale up its support from £8 million in 2005-06 to £50 million by 2010-11. This year (2008-09) the UK programme is £20 million.

Secondary information