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7 May 2009 : Column 432W—continued
USA
Mr. Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development which meetings he attended on his recent visit to New York; what the subject of each meeting was; and if he will make a statement. [272354]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: Details of Ministers' travel are published annually in the Cabinet Office publication “Overseas Travel by Ministers”. The most recent version is available in the Library of the House and online at:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/cabinetoffice/propriety_and_ethics/assets/travel_2007_2008.pdf
World Bank
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what funding his Department proposes to allocate to the World Bank as a result of the recent G20 agreement; what proportion of such funding is new money; and from which budgets such allocations will be made. [270399]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: Countries represented at the 2 April London Summit agreed that they would make resources available for protecting the poor though the crisis, including through the World Bank's Rapid Social Response Fund. On 15 March I announced that my Department would give £200 million in support of the Fund. Resources to fund this contribution will be managed within agreed Treasury departmental allocations.
Zimbabwe: Asylum
Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate he has made of the number of Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa (a) in each of the last five years and (b) at the latest date for which figures are available. [272736]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: There are no accurate data on the numbers of Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa. The majority of Zimbabweans have crossed the border into South Africa informally and are thus largely ‘invisible’ in statistics. Human Rights Watch estimated in 2008 that since 2005 an estimated one to 1.5 million Zimbabweans have fled across the border into South Africa. Of these, the minority have lodged an asylum claim and an even smaller number have received refugee status.
The following table published on 8 March 2009 by the South Africa Department of Home Affairs show the number of Zimbabweans who have applied for political asylum in South Africa since 2000, as well as those granted and refused refugee status.
| New applications (asylum seekers) | Approvals (refugee status approved) | Rejections | |
Sammy Wilson:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much humanitarian
assistance has been given to support Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa in each of the last five years. [272842]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: In 2008 the Department for International Development (DFID) has provided £690,000 of humanitarian assistance to 10,000 vulnerable migrants and children living in Musina (Limpopo Province) close to the South African and Zimbabwean border; and approximately 40,500 vulnerable migrants who have been displaced due to xenophobic attacks in June 2008 in the Guateng, Kwazulu Natal and Western Cape provinces. While the majority of these vulnerable migrants are Zimbabwean, there are also nationals from other countries (i.e. Angola and Congo) who live in the same areas. Some of these vulnerable migrants may have refugee status, but our humanitarian programmes do not record this data. We are providing a further £738,000 to these groups in the current year. We had no humanitarian spend in South Africa between 2004 and 2007.
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