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Children in crisis: unaccompanied migrant children in the EU

The current refugee crisis is the greatest humanitarian challenge to have faced the European Union since its foundation.  

Although the outcome of the referendum on 23 June 2016 was that the UK should leave the EU, the UK remains a full member of the EU, with all the responsibilities that entails, until the final withdrawal agreement is ratified. It is vital, both on moral grounds and in order to help maintain good relations with the other 27 Member States, that the UK Government should participate fully in EU action to resolve this humanitarian crisis.

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Unaccompanied child refugees to be dispersed across UK

A national dispersal scheme for unaccompanied child asylum seekers in Britain is to get under way in July as Home Office ministers prepare to announce a new scheme to take Syrian child refugees directly from camps in the Middle East.

The number of unaccompanied child refugees in Britain has reached 4,029, with many concentrated in Kent and Croydon, where they first made their claims for asylum on arrival in Britain.

The immigration minister, James Brokenshire, told MPs it was clear that a national response was needed to help councils such as Kent and Croydon “promote a fair and equitable distribution of cases across the country in a way that protects the best interests of those children”.

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Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to be resettled from Europe

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children will be resettled from Greece, Italy and France, in an initiative announced today following discussions between the government and Save the Children.

This initiative builds on last month’s announcement that up to 3,000 vulnerable children and family members will be resettled direct from the Middle East and North Africa.

And it adds to the resettlement of 20,000 people direct from Syrian refugee communities, which has been under way since last year.

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