Kent campaigners demand safe routes for child refugees

Kent campaigners, including local MP Rosie Duffield, The Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin Bishop of Dover,  The Most Reverend John Wilson, Metropolitan Archbishop of Southwark, and Faversham Town Council,  are urging the Government to include safe and legal routes for unaccompanied refugee children in its New Plan for Immigration.  

 In an open letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, Kent residents from 12 groups, together with Faversham Town Council, plus 18 supporting organisations and groups around Britain, express their concerns. They say that the proposed legislation does not protect the rights of refugees under international law to seek asylum in the UK. The letter also calls on the Government to share responsibility for unaccompanied child refugees more equally among UK Local Authorities.    Whitstable Calais Solidarity are emphatic:  “WCS fully supports this comprehensive letter and would request the Home office to base its decisions on evidence rather than populist narrative.” 

 Valerie Jeffries, from Faversham and Villages Refugee Solidarity Group, said, “The Immigration Plan is unworkable, and cannot achieve the Government’s aim of preventing youngsters being exploited by ruthless criminals.”   She warned, “As the Government has not outlined any safe and legal routes available to them, more refugee children will make hazardous journeys to reach safety. Trafficking of young asylum seekers by boat and lorry into Kent will continue.”   According to research by Safe Passage International, between 2010 and 2019 around 10,000 children arrived in the UK via dangerous journeys.  Asylum seekers cannot avoid the journey to UK because the British Government will not consider asylum claims from outside the UK. 

 Campaigners are angry that the Government has cut short previous plans to welcome unaccompanied asylum seeking children. Both of the schemes initiated by Lord Alfred Dubs, himself a former child refugee, plus the Dublin III route for child refugees to reunite with family members living in Britain, have been stopped. Many children with family in the UK are now stranded in Northern France, at serious risk of abuse and exploitation, because unaccompanied minors are no longer allowed to reunite with family members living here.   

Osama Sharkia,  who has become a Youth Ambassador with Kent Refugee Action Network, is a witness to the need for child refugees to seek asylum in safety. “The new immigration plan is a big shock” he says, “It puts our life, our friends’ life, and our family’s life in a real danger. They are still using these routes to seek sanctuary in the UK and this plan only forces them to accept their destiny in their countries, and not giving them the chance to survive the persecution that they face in their homes.”  

 Kent County Council has received and cared for most young arrivals for several years. Other local authorities have pledged 1400 places for children to come via a safe route to the UK, but these have not been taken up.  Kent has disproportionate numbers of asylum-seeking children in care, and campaigners are asking for a Government commitment to reform the National Transfer Scheme. This would ensure that these caring responsibilities are fairly distributed between all local authorities.  Kent refugee groups want adequate funding for councils caring for young asylum seekers so that these children are given the chance of a new life in safety. 

 Faversham Town Cllr Carole Jackson says  “I am concerned with the Home Secretary’s desire to overhaul the current UK asylum system. We need to maintain adequate safeguarding measures for all vulnerable refugees who are in immediate danger within their own nation state. The Home Office’s programme offers more hostility and harm towards refugees, especially unaccompanied children. I believe it is our responsibility to increase intake, and all areas of the UK should be prepared to welcome them. 

In summary, the Mayor of Faversham declares “The need for safe routes instead of trafficking is paramount, as is the need for adequate funding for Local Authorities who receive child refugees.” 

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  Members of FVRSG posting Letter to Priti Patel

The Letter is below, followed by list of signatories 

Kent letter to Priti Patel 

We are writing to you as concerned citizens in Kent, with supporters from around Britain.

In light of the recent announcement by the Home Office of their New Plan for Immigration we are asking for assurances that the Government will provide a safe route for refugee children in Europe to come to the UK to prevent children attempting dangerous Channel crossings.  

As residents in Kent including individuals who have sought sanctuary in the UK, we see and have experienced first-hand the consequences of no safe routes for children and young people as they risk their lives and make treacherous journeys across the Channel to reach sanctuary or reunite with family in the UK. We are deeply concerned by the Government’s new Plan for Immigration, which fails to provide any safe routes to unaccompanied child refugees living in dangerous conditions, for example on the Greek islands and in northern France.  

People fleeing persecution and war have a right under international law to seek asylum in the UK and we have a responsibility to provide sanctuary, particularly given that 86% of the world’s refugees are hosted in developing countries. 

We understand that several local authorities in the UK are under heightened pressure due to the number of spontaneous arrivals coming under their care. We thank the Government for listening to some of Kent’s concerns around the National Transfer Scheme and for reviewing the scheme with other local authorities. This is important to enable Kent County Council to send some child refugees to the care of other local authorities, and for some children newly arrived to bypass Kent directly to other regions, leaving Kent County Council with some future flexibility.  

We hope this operation will now be permanent, and we ask if you can provide three assurances to prevent future crises in Kent? 

1. That the Government will commit to reforming the National Transfer Scheme to ensure the responsibility for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is more equally shared between local authorities 
2. That the Home Office will increase the level of funding for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and care leavers in local authorities’ care so that they have adequate resources to support and welcome children. 
3. That the Government will announce a safe route for unaccompanied children in Europe so that children do not have to make dangerous journeys to the UK. 
4. We are proud of the compassion that the UK continues to show in resettling families through our resettlement schemes. We are however dismayed by the lack of safe routes for unaccompanied children to the UK – as a country we have only resettled 100 unaccompanied children in the last 5 years and the Dubs scheme was closed last year after only welcoming 480 unaccompanied children in Europe. 

This is deeply worrying, and even more so when we consider that the vast majority of children claiming asylum in the UK have had to travel here dangerously, risking their lives on dinghies or in the back of lorries. According to research by Safe Passage International, an estimated 10,000 children arrived in the UK in the back of a lorry between 2010 and 2019. We anticipate further young arrivals in the Summer coming by unsafe and irregular routes.  

We were also deeply disappointed to see the Government restrict family reunion provisions for children at the end of the last year. This leaves a number of children in Northern France who have family members in the UK stranded on the other side of the channel, as they are unable to reunite with their families under the UK Immigration Rules. The current Immigration Rules must be expanded so that children who would have been able to reunite with family in the UK under the Dublin III Regulation can once again do so, without risking their lives. 

Opening safe routes will continue Britain’s reputation for compassion. It would also allow the unused 1,400 places pledged by local authorities in 2019 to be filled – places pledged specifically for children to come via a safe route to the UK. Now, more than ever, we must deliver on our duty of care for children in very vulnerable circumstances, no matter where they are from.     

We welcome the announcement made by the Government to publicly consult on safe and legal routes, and we look forward to engaging in this process. 

We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss these issues further at your earliest convenience. 

Yours Sincerely,    

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All signatories follow 

Kent signatories 16 

The Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin Bishop of Dover 

The Most Reverend John Wilson, Metropolitan Archbishop of Southwark 

Rosie Duffield MP 

Faversham Town Council   

Faversham and Villages Refugee Solidarity Group  

KRAN – Kent Refugees Action Network 

Whitstable Calais Solidarity 

Migrant Support 

People Not Borders 

Good Chance Theatre 

Tonbridge Welcomes Refugees 

Kent Refugee Help 

Faversham Stands up to Racism 

Kent Kindness 

The Worldwide Tribe 

Humans for Rights   

Supporting signatories  18 

Safe Passage International 

The Joint Council for The Welfare of Immigrants  JCWI 

iMIX Refugees    

Refugee Compassion   

Refugees at Home 

People Not Borders 

Side by Side Refugees 

Refugee Relief Ynys Mon 

Epsom Refugee Network 

Elmbridge CAN 

Bridge2 

Cambridge Convoy Refugee Action Group 

Guildford Refugee Aid, 

Jesuit Refugee Service  JRS   

Phoenix Rising    

Donate4Refugees 

Hello My Friend       

Herts for Refugees