Refugee children will suffer, warnsWelby
MORE children will be trafficked, exploited and killed as a result of the closure of the Dubs refugee scheme, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.
The Most Rev Justin Welby stepped up his attack on the Government for closing the programme for resettling lone youngsters from mainland Europe in the UK.
The so-called Dubs amendment, named after its architect, Labour peer Alf Dubs, requires the Government to relocate unaccompanied refugee children from other European countries.
Controversy erupted when it emerged the scheme will end after another 150 unaccompanied children are brought to Britain, on top of 200 who have already arrived, rather than the 3,000 campaigners and politicians had originally wanted.
The Archbishop said he he was “saddened and shocked” at the decision. He said he understood Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s argument that UK and French authorities feared the scheme acted as a “pull factor” for children to head to the UK and that it provided opportunities for people-traffickers.
But speaking on Radio 4, he said: “At some point the vulnerability of these children must be recognised because the alternative is they will be trafficked – it’s not going to stop them being trafficked – and they will end up in brothels, they will end up in places where they are exploited, illtreated, manipulated and very often finally killed.”