Lord Dubs describes closure of child migrant scheme as 'shameful'

[Denzil_DC]

Lord Alf Dubs - the man behind the so-called Dubs Amendment - has called the decision for the UK to stop accepting lone child refugees "shameful".

Last year, following intense pressure, the Government made changes to the UK's Immigration Act allowing the relocation of unaccompanied refugee children from other countries in Europe.

Although the exact number of migrants to be taken was never specified, campaigners originally called for 3,000 under-18s to be accepted into the country.

However, a written statement from Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill has now shown that the scheme will be closed once a mere 350 children have been brought to the UK.

http://news.sky.com/story/lord-dubs-describes-closure-of-child-migrant-scheme-as-shameful-10760647

[LeftishBrit]

1. And apparently a unilateral decision by the government, not put to a vote

Ugh.

I must say that 'Goodwill' is about as unsuitable name as you could get for an Immigration Minister in this present government.

[Denzil_DC]

2. More background on some of the effects of this:

I work with child refugees in Calais. Theresa May’s deception is a cruel act

Call it shameful, call it cruel. The UK now has an effective refugee ban of its very own, targeting the most vulnerable of the vulnerable: unaccompanied children. In the House of Lords yesterday, the minister for immigration, Robert Goodwill, announced the abandonment of the Dubs amendment to the Immigration Act. This was passed last May, after being designed by the peer and refugee Alf Dubs, who fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia as a child, one of thousands rescued in the Kindertransport effort.

Lord Dubs and his supporters had suggested the UK could potentially help 3,000 of the most vulnerable children in Europe - there are estimated to be 90,000 unaccompanied migrant children across the continent as a whole, including thousands who wait in the camps of Greece and Italy, described by Unicef as “alone and extremely vulnerable”. In itself, 3,000 was a modest and achievable number. But now, it emerges, we will be taking only 350 – including 200 who have already come over from the refugee camp in Calais – and we will then slam shut the door.

I worked with the organisation Safe Passage, and volunteer for the charity Help Refugees, and I’m not surprised our government has dodged its responsibility to lone refugee children – it’s been attempting to do this since the beginning. From May, when the amendment passed, until October, when the eviction of the camp in Calais commenced, our government took no action to safeguard children or fast-track their transfer to the UK.

It was only after the fires in the Calais camp, the mayhem that ensued, and its eventual demolition, that children were sent to accommodation centres across France to be interviewed by the UK Home Office. I visited 14 of these centres and found children with one goal – safe arrival in the UK. They were totally distressed by the lack of information they had received. In some centres the mental health of children was visibly deteriorating: they were self-harming and not eating, running away from state protection and back on to the road.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/09/dubs-child-refugees-calais-theresa-may-deception-cruel-people-smugglers

Refugee children 'devastated' by end of Dubs scheme

Aid workers in France, Greece and Italy said unaccompanied refugee children would be devastated by the curtailment of the Dubs scheme, and would respond by risking their lives to get to the UK illegally.

Charity workers in Calais said an estimated 200 asylum-seeking children were now living rough in the forests and woodland around the demolished refugee camp, many of whom had expected to be eligible to be transferred to the UK under the Dubs amendment.

“They are not in tents because it makes them more visible to the police; they want to stay secret and out of sight. But it is quite dangerously cold,” said Amelia Burr, with the charity Help Refugees. Throughout January nighttime temperatures have been around -5C (23F). “We give out sleeping bags and blankets at night; when we come back the next day the blankets are frozen.”

Now that there is little chance of a legal route to the UK, young asylum seekers are once again attempting to get on lorries travelling to the UK at night, she said. Last month a 20-year-old from Eritrea was killed on the motorway. “There is very little legal option for minors who want to get to the UK now, so they are left with only one option, which is to risk their lives to try to get to England.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/09/refugee-children-devastated-by-end-of-dubs-scheme

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Nicholas Wintons daughter urges PM to reverse closure of Dubs refugee scheme

The daughter of Sir Nicholas Winton – who was hailed “Britain’s Schindler” after saving hundreds of children from Nazi tyranny – has called on Theresa May to reverse the closure of the Dubs refugee scheme.

Barbara Winton issued a personal appeal to the Prime Minister amid a mounting storm over the future of the programme for resettling lone youngsters in the UK.
...
In a letter to the Prime Minister, she wrote: “Donald Trump’s refugee ban echoes the terrible failures of the human spirit that, on the eve of the Second World War, saw country after country close its borders to Jewish refugees in urgent need of protection.

“My father … knew that each and every one of us share in a responsibility to our fellow men and women, a responsibility to offer sanctuary those fleeing persecution.

http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/winton-may-dubs-refugees/