Anger at Government’s claim over child refugee trafficking

Government claims that a scheme to rehome child refugees encouraged trafficking are “spurious” and “disgraceful”, a leading Catholic anti-slavery campaigner has said.

The chief executive of UK-based anti-trafficking and modern slavery charity the Medaille Trust condemned Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s claims that concerns over child refugees being “a pull” for traffickers were behind her reneging on the number of child refugees allowed into the UK under the Dubs Amendment, named after the Labour peer Lord Dubs (pictured).

Mike Emberson labelled Ms Rudd’s justification for reducing the number of unaccompanied child refugees due to be safely relocated in the UK from 3,000 to just 350 as “a disgraceful piece of obfuscation”. Medaille was founded by groups of religious congregations in 2006. Mr Emberson said: “Coming from a Christian standpoint, it’s time we moved on from a nihilistic debate about who is responsible and stepped up to the plate to help these vulnerable children in a non-judgmental way.”

Catholic agencies, including the Church aid agency Cafod and the Bishops’ Conference’s social action network CSAN, accused the UK of failing to protect refugee children following the Government’s announcement.

Bishop Paul McAleenan, chair of the Bishops’ Conference Office for Migration, said: “The entire international community has a duty to protect refugees, especially unaccompanied children who are often most vulnerable to exploitation or trafficking.” Neil Thorns, Cafod’s director of advocacy, urged the Government “to ensure there are safe and legal routes for vulnerable refugees to reach protection in the UK”.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols last week called on the Government to work with “renewed vigour” to assist vulnerable, unaccompanied child refugees who may be vulnerable to trafficking.
“By repealing … the Dubs Amendment, the Government is seen by many as abandoning its statutory and moral duty to take effective action for the protection of vulnerable, unaccompanied child refugees … it is truly shocking,” said Cardinal Nichols. “The Home Office stated that during 2016 over 900 unaccompanied children were brought to safety from Europe, including 750 from Calais. However, the need is evidently far greater and I am informed there are a number of local authorities willing and resourced to take many more of these children into their care.”

The Catholic peer Lord Alton of Liverpool, who was one of the four peers to table the Dubs Amendment, also condemned the move. “I am dismayed and saddened the Government has reneged on its promise to help these children,” he said.