Wales Green Party responds to growing crisis for refugee children
Alice Hooker-Stroud, leader of the Wales Green Party responds to UNICEF’s report, ‘Uprooted’, which today revealed that over half the world’s refugees are children: 50 million children have been forcibly displaced from their homes worldwide; 28 million have fled violence and conflict. It states that nearly one in every 200 children worldwide is now a refugee.
“It astounds me that at the same time this report is published, the UK Minister of State for Immigration, Conservative MP Robert Goodwill, announces the building of a wall in Calais.
The refugee camp in Calais sits between the fifth and sixth richest countries in the world – us and France, and our Government’s approach is to try and pen them in with concrete.
It’s absolutely ridiculous. This problem will not go away. We need an internationally co-ordinated effort to home refugees, particularly children. All refugees in these camps are in danger of exploitation, trafficking, and abuse. Building a wall increases these dangers.
There is a growing crisis here, and half of those in crisis are children who are experiencing an appalling start to life which will impact them for the rest of their lives. We can’t just block that out with a wall.”
The UK now has a legal obligation (the ‘Dubs Amendment’) to provide a place of sanctuary, and a safe route into the UK for the most desperate child refugees. Although an estimated 70-120 children have been reunited with their families in the UK this year, so far no unaccompanied children have been brought to the UK under this law, which commits to resettling 3,000 children.