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| Image via Avaaz.org |
300 refugee children are stuck in the "living hell" of the Calais refugee camp, waiting for our government's promise of a new life in the UK to come through. A massive public outcry can push the PM to let these children come to their family already waiting here, before the new school term.Dear friends,
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Terrified children are trapped in a refugee camp in Calais that a judge said was a "living hell" -- but we have a chance to get 300 children to safety in Britain in time for the new school term!
I was a child refugee once, fleeing the Nazis, and Britain took me in and saved my life. So when I hear that thousands of unaccompanied refugee children are going missing across Europe, and our government is breaking its promise to reunite them with family in the UK, it’s personal.
Right now, these kids are suffering "squalor, destitution and desperation" because the government is dragging its feet. It’s unforgivable, but I believe if we urgently build a huge public push, we can get these 300 frightened children here before school starts!
- Lord Alfred Dubs, a child refugee rescued by the UK in 1938
The Avaaz movement has funded efforts to reunite unaccompanied refugee children with family members in the UK, and already children are back with their loved ones as a result. But 300 others are trapped in Calais because the government has not made them a priority!
If we make this a massive public issue the new Prime Minister could put a tiny team of civil servants on this, and put them back in the loving arms of their families. If a child we knew was trapped in Calais, we’d do anything to help them -- let’s do the same for these children.
No child should be forced to live alone and in squalor in a shanty town while their relatives are just a few miles away in Britain. Every day of inaction is another night these kids are left alone in the Calais Jungle. But the government has already agreed to save these children!
If we make this a massive public issue the new Prime Minister could put a tiny team of civil servants on this, and put them back in the loving arms of their families. If a child we knew was trapped in Calais, we’d do anything to help them -- let’s do the same for these children.
No child should be forced to live alone and in squalor in a shanty town while their relatives are just a few miles away in Britain. Every day of inaction is another night these kids are left alone in the Calais Jungle. But the government has already agreed to save these children!
Sign the call for Britain to keep its promise, and we’ll deliver it straight to the Home Office who can make this happen, fast.
I fled the Nazi's, aged 6, to join my father in Britain. I travelled alone from Prague on one of the famous Kindertransport and met him at Liverpool Street Station. Help give other refugee children the same chance I had.
Lord Alfred Dubs with the Avaaz team.
Lord Alfred Dubs with the Avaaz team.
More information:
- UK government u-turn on refugee children in May (The Guardian)
- UNICEF calls on UK government to keep its promise of reuniting lone refugee children
- Call for 300 lone refugee children to be allowed into UK by September in order to start school (The Guardian)
- House of Lords Select Committee report on unaccompanied minors
- Britain is failing to take its fair share of unaccompanied refugee children (The Independent)
- The number of Calais children rising (The Daily Mail)