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Petition relating to migrants and refugees in the UK

17 September 2015

This petition reached the highest number of signatures since the launch of the new petitions site, petition.parliament.uk. The Petitions Committee looked at this petition on Tuesday 8 September.

House of Commons debates on the subject of the petition

The Prime Minister made a statement on Monday 7 September relating to the refugee crisis and was questioned by MPs about it. On Tuesday 8 September there was an emergency debate on the refugee crisis in Europe. There was also a further debate on this subject on Wednesday 9 September.

The Committee decided that, since this issue had already been debated extensively in the House of Commons, the time was not right for another debate on the same issue.

The petition was 'tagged' to both House of Commons debates on Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 September (listed on the order paper). The Committee  informed petitioners about the debates that had happened in the House of Commons.

Time line of debates:

Monday 7 September

The Prime Minister made a statement on Syria: refugees and counter terrorism and was questioned by MPs about it.

Following the statement, Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP proposed that the House debate the refugee crisis in Europe on Tuesday 8 September. This was agreed to by the House of Commons.

Tuesday 8 September

The House of Commons had an emergency debate on the refugee crisis in Europe.

Wednesday 9 September

The Scottish National Party chose to use its opposition day to debate the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean and Europe.

Wednesday 16 September

Home Secretary, Theresa May, made a statement in the House of Commons on migration and was questioned by MPs about it.

 Further information

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