As we told you on Monday, Tim Farron got representatives from charities, NGOs and political parties round the table today to work on a practical plan for the UK to accept 3000 unaccompanied child refugees who have reached Europe.
Among those attending were Save the Children, UNICEF, Islington Law Council, Kent Refugee Action Network, Refugee Council, Homes for Good, Coram, Barnardo’s, British Red Cross, ECPAT UK, Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign, The Children’s Society, ILPA and the Local government Association. Also, Leader of the Green Party Caroline Lucas MP, Margaret Greenwood (Labour) MP, Heidi Allen MP (Conservative) and Mark Durkan MP (SDLP) came along.
Tim told the meeting:
The scale of the crisis beyond comprehension, the British government has ignored our calls. We can, and must do more.
Plans will now be drafted to lay out a comprehensive blueprint of how communities up and down the country could offer a home to 3,000 children.
He added:
I am very grateful to everyone who took part in our very frank and productive discussion on the greatest humanitarian crisis the world has faced since the end of the Second World War.
We need to put pressure on the government to lead the way and show compassion to these children who are at risk of being trafficked. The government are refusing to come up with a plan, so we will.
We will not allow these desperate children to be pushed aside.
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2 Comments
Full marks.The UK was a founder signatory of the 1951 Refugee Convention; shameful that we cannot uphold basic humanitarian values at a time such as this. We also should be inspired by the humane and compassionate approach of the recently elected Justin Trudeau and the Canadian Liberal government.
This is welcome news but really Europe as a whole is failing these refugees. It is shocking that people are drowning trying to get to freedom. Patrol boats should be organised and decisions made on where refugees can be settled in each member state. Can our sole MEP get our sister parties to take an initiative on this? Seeing the EU take charge of the situation could make a big difference in the Referendum.