Fund welcomes refugee u-turn
THE WEIDENFELD Fund has welcomed David Cameron’s decision to accept unaccompanied child refugees from Europe, and has offered to help finance them.
In a letter to the prime minister, the fund’s president, Lord Woolf, said: “The Weidenfeld Fund would like to offer a financial contribution towards the cost of those amongst them from the Christian minorities of the Middle East, in the memory of late Lord Weidenfeld.”
The offer came after Mr Cameron said the government would not stand in the way of an amendment calling for Britain to take in unaccompanied refugee children who had already arrived in Europe.
Former Kindertransport refugee Lord Dubs had his amendment to the immigration bill — which would have seen the UK accept 3,000 child refugees — rejected in a vote in the House of Commons last month.
MPs voted against the proposals to accept 3,000 children by 294 to 276.
But after criticism, the prime minister said he would accept the amendment now that it no longer included the figure of 3,000.
Lord Woolf said he hoped the fund’s initial offer of £100,000 would “demonstrate leadership and spur on others to make their own practical and financial contribution towards this effort.”
Before Lord Weidenfeld passed away last year, he launched a mission to rescue up to 2,000 Christian families from Syria and Iraq.
Weidenfeld’s Safe Havens Fund flew 150 Syrian Christians fleeing terror group Daesh to safe haven in Warsaw on Friday.
One of the fund’s governors, Sir Charles Hoare, said: “It is fair to say we have been quite frustrated about getting refugees into the UK particularly when it comes to the Christian minorities. So we are delighted buy the u-turn.
“We know quite a lot of refugees from Christian minorities have come into Greece, so these new plans by the government mean it is likely we will be able to support their move into the UK.
“And it has a direct link to Lord Weidenfeld and what he wanted to do, which was to help Christians the way they helped him. We hope to help fund foster families where the children will end up. A lot of that has come from the generosity of the community.”