§ Mr. LlwydTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what(a) projects and (b) financial aids are provided to help reunite refugee children with their families in areas of conflict. [37054]
§ Mr. FoulkesI have been asked to reply.
The Department for International Development (DFID) supports a number of organisations which help to reunite refugee children with their families. Prominent among these is the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who work in most of the world's crisis affected countries and whose mandate includes protection and tracing. We have recently agreed a core contribution of 536W £15 million (1997/98 financial year) for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). We support and work closely with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), whose mandate is the protection of children's rights: in 1996/97 DFID provided a core contribution of £8.5 million. We have also contributed a sum of £200,000 in support of the work of the United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict to ensure protection, healing and rehabilitation of war affected children.
Additionally, DFID supports bilaterally a number of NGOs who work with refugees. Many of these projects are aimed at the most vulnerable members of the community and often have children as major beneficiaries. For instance we have given specific support to the UK NGO Children in Crisis to fund an orphan reunification project in Afghanistan. We are also funding a Save the Children programme in Liberia which aims to assist unaccompanied children, family tracing and reunification/rehabilitation work.