A THREE-year-old boy blocked from joining his grandfather in Scotland died after being denied medical treatment in Lebanon, MPs have heard.

The toddler, a Syrian refugee, was left in hospital without treatment for seven hours.

His grandfather in Scotland had tried to bring the boy and the rest of his family here, but they are locked in an immigration battle with the Home Office, which rejected their family reunion bid.

The man's MP Stuart McDonald revealed the "heartbreaking" story this afternoon as he pressed Home Office minister James Cleverly over cuts to international aid and the end of the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme.

That targeted scheme closed earlier this year after its 20,000-person target was met. One fifth of all Syrian refugees brought to the UK have been settled in Scotland.

A new global resettlement scheme has been brought in, but McDonald says "we know little about its ambitions in terms of numbers or how many it will take from Jordan and Lebanon", where high concentrations of Syrian refugees remain.

READ MORE: We just want our children: Anguish of New Scots families split by war and Home Office

More than 11 million Syrians have fled the crisis in their country since 2011. As of August 2020, more than 5.5 million Syrians were registered with the UN High Commission for Refugees, making Syria the largest refugee crisis in the world.

More than 10,000 people remain stranded at the northeast border between Jordan and Syria in a precarious, informal settlement called Rukban alone.

But this year the UK Government announced it will cut Syria's aid budget by almost 50%.

McDonald told how Mr N's daughter in Lebanon is living in a garage at a farm where she and her husband work in exchange for shelter.

From Scotland, he sends them money for food but her mental health is suffering.

The MP accused the international community of "a collective failure" and said of their ordeal: "The family has suffered too much when many people, including myself, would say that we can do more."

READ MORE: Stuck in Lebanon: the Syrian refugees who can't reach their new UK homes

Middle East Minister James Cleverly said the £3.7 billion spent on responding to the Syrian crisis is the largest ever UK effort to tackle a single humanitarian crisis and the government will continue to fund work in Jordan and Lebanon.

He said: "Over the last 10 years Assad's unrepentant and unreformed regime has inflicted untold suffering on the Syrian people and has consistently and deliberately undermined efforts to pursue peace.

"The UK has a long and proud history of supporting refugees in need of protection and the Syria crisis is no different."

On lasting peace in that country, Cleverly went on: "We do not believe that the Assad regime, which has committed so many atrocities against the Syrian people, is capable of delivering that peace."