UK will take some children
BRITAIN is to look for refugee children in Greece and Italy who may have a right to come to Britain, it emerged yesterday.
In an apparent climbdown, No 10 said the UK was willing to accept lone child refugees who make the perilous trip to Europe, despite David Cameron warning this week it would encourage more to come.
The Home Office said it would even commit ‘further resources’ to identifying those who have relatives in the UK.
On Wednesday, ministers rejected a call to resettle 3,000 children who have travelled to Europe from Syria and elsewhere. But yesterday the Home Office said it will try to track down unaccompanied child migrants in Greece and Italy, adding: ‘Where it is in their best interests, this will include bringing them to the UK.’ the rotating presidency of the eU, yesterday revealed it is working on a ‘migrant swap’ plan that would see a group of eU countries accept up to 250,000 refugees from Turkey in return for sending back all those trying to get to Greece.
Diederik Samsom, the leader of the Socialist Pvda party, a key partner in the government of Dutch prime minister mark rutte, said all migrants arriving on the Greek islands would be sent back on ferries within days of arrival. a group of countries – expected to include the netherlands, Germany, Sweden, austria, France, Spain, italy and Portugal – would then agree to take in a set number of people every year from Turkey.
amnesty international last night criticised the plan as ‘morally bankrupt’.
‘a large- scale resettlement scheme for refugees from Turkey to the eU is a good idea, but making it conditional on the swift return of those crossing the border irregularly is tantamount to bartering in human lives,’ a spokesman said.
The United States has warned that citizens from France, Belgium, Germany, italy and Greece could be blocked from getting visa-free travel to america to tackle the problem of stolen and forged passports.
The countries have been given until next week to act or their travellers will be forced to apply for visas and attend face-toface interviews if they want to cross the atlantic.