Fears are growing for the welfare of children, some as young as 12, still stranded in the ruins of the migrant camp in Calais after it emerged that some never made it onto UK-bound buses arranged by the Home Office.
The Red Cross warned that some of these children were in danger of disappearing before they can be brought to safety. The children had been interviewed and registered and approved to travel to the UK under the terms of Dubs amendment legislation.
Alex Fraser, director of refugee support at the British Red Cross, said: “We are extremely concerned to hear reports of children sleeping rough following the demolition of the Calais ‘Jungle’. The demolition should not have gone ahead without every child being accounted for and given a safe place to stay.
“Many of the children who remain in Calais have a legal right to come to the UK, but there is now a real risk some will disappear, when they should have been brought to safety. The UK government should be urging the French government in the strongest terms to ensure that no child is left without shelter tonight.”
Lawyers representing some of the children eligible to travel to the UK have been unable to contact them and fear that they have left Calais to try their luck elsewhere in France or have been dispersed by the French authorities even though their names are on a list to come to the UK.Some local authorities have accused the Home Office of preventing them from bringing Dubs amendment children into the UK several months ago, a move which they say could have avoided some of the current chaos and confusion.
Steve Cowan, the Labour leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council, said: “Hundreds of the Calais refugee children have had legal rights to be in safe, clean, loving foster homes in the UK for a very long time. The government owes those desperate children a full explanation as to why it left them to suffer the horrors of that camp for so long.
“A large number of the children are still there – some sleeping outside on these bitterly cold nights, others still victims of ongoing criminal activity. We now need to see some big, bold and generous action from the British government. That means they need to work closely with the charities and volunteers on the ground and get the children to the UK where ours and many other councils stand by ready to take them.”
The Home Office said: “We will not facilitate a situation where councils prioritise one group of children over another once in the UK – especially when so many have undergone similar experiences along their journey.
“We have only recently received agreement from the French government that we could bring Dubs cases to the UK. Without their agreement it was not possible to make progress on taking non-family cases from Calais.”
A French government spokeswoman said that the first lists of children identified as being suitable to be relocated to the UK had been given to the UK government in May, and that the French authorities did not want to prevent these children from coming to the UK.
She said the children who had been sleeping rough in the camp had arrived at the facility in the last two or three days, and were not longstanding residents.
