Helping to save child refugees

On Saturday the Bishop of Croydon sent an urgent email to all clergy in his area asking for our support at the House of Commons today when the Children and Social Work Bill was debated. Amongst a mixture of items including sex education and safeguarding issues was an amendment to a clause which would have allowed the continuation of the so-called 'Dubs Scheme' introduced last year, with some difficulty, allowing unaccompanied child refugees safe have in the UK. Much to its shame, the government has closed the scheme less than 6 months after it started. The amendment tabled today would have made local councils declare if they could take more child refugees, rather than central government imposing a cap. The evidence is that several local authorities have spaces and are willing to take more child refugees than they have been offered.

Lord Dubs addressing the group

With Bishop Jonathan, clergy from the Croydon area, several Jewish leaders from London and representatives of  Safe Passage UK visited the Palace of Westminster to let our MPs know we were here, and to listen to the debate. We were joined by two well-known actors - Toby Jones and Juliet Stevenson. The groups was addressed by Lord Alf Dubs who was himself a child of the 'kindertransport' in the 1930s, which brought Jewish child refugees fleeing the Nazis - hence the support from many Jewish groups.

The amendment was tabled by the Tory MP for Cambridgeshire South, Heidi Allen, and supported by several London MPs, but sadly not by our MP Chris Philp. Yvette Cooper (Labour) spoke passionately and cogently in its favour, reminding the government benches that the government-appointed expert on modern-day slavery had advocated allowing greater numbers of child refugees safe haven as a way of combating the evils of human trafficking.

Disappointment at the vote

The opposition parties and several brave Tory MPs supported the amendment but, to our great disappointment, it was defeated by 287 to 267 votes. Reactions from our group afterwards were 'shock', 'shame', 'gutted'. But Alf Dubs and Yvette Cooper met with us and urged us not to give up hope. Only by changing public opinion in favour of child refugees will things change.

The UK has done much to help refugees in the past, and the government should be applauded in maintaining its level of international aid - significantly higher than any other EU country, I believe. But to block the number of unaccompanied refugee children entering at 350 is a stain on our national pride and needs to be cleared. Jesus said, "Whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

BBC coverage of the story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39187290