How many Syrian refugees are there in the UK?

26 June 2015
What was claimed

The UK has only granted asylum to 187 Syrian refugees through the Vulnerable Person Relocation scheme.

Our verdict

This is correct, but not all Syrian refugees arrive in the UK through the scheme.

An article on this topic with updated figures has been published here.

"Right now there are 30,000 Syrian refugees in Germany, there's about 4,500 in Sweden and do you know how many there are in Britain right now... in this country we only have 180 Syrian refugees under David Cameron's programme."—Fraser Nelson, BBC Question Time, 25 June 2015

"No, I heard it was 4,000 to 5000."—Amber Rudd MP

"It's 187."—Fraser Nelson

Not all Syrian refugees enter the UK through the Vulnerable Person Relocation scheme.

Back in 2014, the government launched a scheme that allows "particularly vulnerable" displaced Syrians to enter the UK. 187 people have been resettled in the UK through this scheme since it began.

The Vulnerable Person Relocation scheme targets the refugees "at greatest risk", where "evacuation from the region is the only option", with particular attention paid to survivors of torture and violence, or women and children who need medical care.

Not all Syrian refugees arriving in the UK come through this scheme. Immigration Minister James Brokenshire told Parliament that the UK has granted asylum to "more than 4,000 Syrians" since the start of the crisis.

The immigration statistics bear this out. From the beginning of the Syrian crisis in early 2011 to the first quarter of 2015, almost 4,200 Syrian refugees were granted asylum in the UK in the initial decision made on their application.

A further 100 people were allowed to stay in the UK through humanitarian protection or discretionary leave.

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