Children risking their lives over 2,000 times a week to reach the UK
The unaccompanied refugee children of the Calais refugee camp are putting themselves in grave danger in a desperate attempt to get to the UK.
Despite these children having the legal right to be in the UK, a recent survey of the camp shows they are risking their lives on average 2,110 times a week, stowing away in the back of lorries and jumping on trains, in a bid to reach their loved ones. If children not eligible for family reunion or resettlement are included, the number is significantly higher.
Ahead of the new Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s first Home Office questions today [Monday], Unicef UK, Citizens UK and the British Red Cross are calling for the Government to speed up the process to bring these children to the UK.
To date, only 100 children have been brought to the UK from Europe through the family reunification process in the Dublin III Regulation, 50 of whom were from Calais. There is also a real concern that the Dubs Amendment to the Immigration Act that came into force earlier this year - which was intended to resettle in the UK unaccompanied refugee children stranded in Europe – has not yet led to the UK offering refuge to any additional children.
A total of 4,000 people contacted their local MP to ask them to ballot for a question about how the government is progressing with its obligation to reunite unaccompanied refugee children with their families under the Dublin III Regulation. In addition, over 150,000 people have signed Unicef UK’s petition urging the government to speed up this process.
Rabbi Janet Darley, spokesperson at Citizens UK said, “When safe and legal routes are shut down children are left with a terrible choice, train tracks on the one hand and people traffickers on the other. These numbers show the sheer scale of the risk to life and limb of these vulnerable children. The government must now act.
“Theresa May made tackling modern day slavery a priority as Home Secretary, it’s clear she intends to continue doing so as Prime Minster. Well, right now there are 387 children who are eligible to transfer to the UK stuck in Calais risking their lives thousands of times a week.”
Mike Penrose, Executive Director at Unicef UK said, “These numbers show that the children of Calais have no faith in this onerous and uncoordinated system, so are left with no choice but to risk their lives on a daily basis.
“The public has told us that they want this issue to be addressed urgently. We urge the Home Secretary to take action, as she leads her first Home Office Questions, to ensure that there is an effective and speedy system in place for reuniting these children with their family members in the UK.”
Michael Adamson, Chief Executive of British Red Cross, at the British Red Cross said, “For children living in appalling and unsafe conditions in refugee camps across Europe, the cross-party and public support for the ‘Dubs amendment’ was both important and hugely encouraging.
“However, at the moment, the slow implementation of the Dubs amendment is letting unaccompanied refugee children down. Even for refugee children who have family in the UK, and so a proven legal right to be here, the process remains far too slow and inaccessible. We urgently need a fast track process for unaccompanied refugee children as well as improved safeguarding and protection in the meantime. Our aim should be for no child to be spending another winter in the Calais ‘jungle’ or in unsafe refugee camps elsewhere in Europe.
The three leading agencies have also urged the Home Secretary to consider how the Dubs Amendment can be made to work in order to give refuge to more children as originally intended. The criteria currently being applied are very narrow and are slowing down the process, making it virtually impossible to identify eligible children. If these criteria were widened and made more flexible, then more children who are currently living in great danger could benefit.
With the looming eviction of the camp in Calais, Unicef UK, Citizens UK and the British Red Cross, more than ever, are pushing the UK Government to ensure that the rights of unaccompanied children living there are upheld.
