Cameron’s defiance on refugee children

Despite Lords defeat he still says no to French camp rescue

DAVID Cameron defied mounting pressure yesterday to allow child refugees in Europe to enter Britain.

The Prime Minister dismissed claims that he had ‘put the country to shame’, saying the UK had ‘a proud record’ helping those fleeing war zones such as Syria.

After MPs rejected a proposal earlier this week to accept 3,000 child refugees in the EU, he argued that because they had landed in ‘safe’ countries they did not need to be transported to Britain.

But yesterday Labour MP Yvette Cooper attacked the suggestion that they were safe just because they had reached Europe.

‘There are children’s homes full in Italy and Greece and over 1,000 children will sleep rough in Greece alone tonight,’ she said. ‘How are they safe? Ten thousand children have disappeared in Europe. How are they safe?

‘The agencies say children are committing “survival sex” – they are being subjected to prostitution and rape. It is not insulting other European countries to offer to help; they want us to help.’

Ministers have said Britain will take 3,000 child refugees directly from camps in or near Syria and other war zones. But this week Labour peer Lord Dubs tried to make the

‘Stop walking by on the other side’

Government take 3,000 from EU camps, noting that he was given sanctuary after being brought to Britain by the Kindertransport programme as a child fleeing the Nazis.

The proposal was thrown out in a knifeedge vote in the Commons on Monday.

A revised amendment from the 83yearold peer – which would allow Britain to take in an unspecified number of young refugees after reaching agreement with local authorities – will return to the Commons early next week after being passed by the Lords.

During heated exchanges in the Commons, Miss Cooper, the MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, asked the Prime Minister: ‘Will he reconsider his position on Alf Dubs’s amendment before it comes back for a vote, and will he stop, through his attitude to lone child refugees, putting this House and this country to shame?’

Her question was met with applause – a rare occurrence in the Commons as clapping is banned.

But Mr Cameron rejected the suggestion that the UK was doing little, saying: ‘ The crucial point is this: how do we in Britain best help child refugees?

‘We think we help them by taking them from the refugee camps, taking them from Lebanon, taking them from Jordan and taking them when they come to this country. That is what we are doing. We have a proud record and nothing to be ashamed of.’ He was also grilled by the SNP’s Westminster leader Angus Robertson, who urged him to ‘stop walking by on the other side’.

Mr Robertson said: ‘Europol estimates that 10,000 unaccompanied children in Europe have disappeared. This is an existential question about the safety of vulnerable children. The Prime Minis ter thinks it is not the responsibility of the UK to help unaccompanied children in Europe, so I ask him: Who has the moral responsibility for feeding them, clothing them, educating them and giving them refuge, if not us, and everyone in Europe?’

Mr Cameron pointed out that Britain was taking 20,000 refugees from outside Europe, as well as 3,000 unaccompanied children not in the EU. The country is also one of the larger donors to refugee camps in conflict zones.

He said: ‘To compare, somehow, children or adults who are in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal or Greece with children stuck in Nazi Germany is deeply wrong, and we will continue our approach, which includes being the secondlargest donor country anywhere in the world in those refugee camps. I want Britain to play our part, but we have to ask ourselves whether we do better by taking a child from a refugee camp, or taking a child from Lebanon, or taking a child from Jordan, than by taking a child from France, Italy or Germany.’

Sarah Brown, the wife of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, said yesterday she was ‘ashamed’ MPs had voted against helping child refugees in Europe.

Writing for the Mumsnet website, she added 3,000 children amounted to just ‘five per constituency’ and ‘nowhere near’ the 10,000 that Britain saved through Kindertransport before the Second World War.