TORY plans to close the door on lone child refugees will lead to more minors risking their lives to come here illegally, migrant charities have warned. On Wednesday, as MPs debated Brexit, the UK Government quietly ended their commitment to the Dubs Amendment.
That addition to the Immigration Bill was passed by both houses of Parliament in 2016, with then immigration minister James Brokenshire indicating that the Government would try and take in 3,000 children under the scheme.
By the end of next month, just 350 will have made it into the UK.
Charity Help Refugees believe some of the children who hoped to use the Dubs Amendment will now attempt to get on lorries travelling to the UK, risking their lives.
They have mounted a legal challenge, and say the Government has failed to “lawfully calculate the number of available places for unaccompanied children”.
Rosa Curling, the human rights Solicitor at Leigh Day, says the way in which the government calculated that they could take no more than 350 lone refugee children was “fundamentally flawed”.
“There was no real consultation with many local authorities. Our legal challenge holds the Government to account on this critical issue of how many unaccompanied refugee children will be relocated to the UK and supported here.”
British Red Cross chief executive Mike Adamson said Britain could do better than this: “People traffickers thrive on the absence of safe and legal routes to protection — which is exactly what the Dubs Amendment is. By restricting legal channels, we are leaving children open to exploitation.
“We would encourage the Government to reconsider its decision ... We can do better than offering a home to only 350 minors, when we know that so many more remain stranded and alone in camps which are cold, unsafe and no place for children.”
Home Secretary Amber Rudd was called to the Commons to make a statement. She argued that the amendment was acting as a “pull factor” and encouraging children to make dangerous journeys.
“I am clear that when working with my French counterparts, they do not want us to indefinitely continue to accept children under the Dubs Amendment because they specify – and I agree with them – that it acts as a draw. It acts as a pull,” Rudd told the House of Commons. “It encourages the people traffickers.”
There are currently 200 unaccompanied refugee children in the UK, with another 150 still to come. Glasgow MP Carol Monaghan asked the Home Secretary if she was ready “to look the 151st child in the eye and say no?”
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, May insisted the Government’s approach was “absolutely right”.
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