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Britain to take in more child migrants, charities say thousands in danger

by Anna Pujol-Mazzini | @annapmzn | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Wednesday, 26 April 2017 17:15 GMT

A demonstrator holds Paddington Bear soft toys during a protest highlighting the plight of child refugees, outside the Home Office in London, Britain in this October 24, 2016 archive photo. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

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Over 200 children have already been brought to Britain from France under the Dubs scheme

By Anna Pujol-Mazzini

LONDON, April 26 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Britain announced on Wednesday it would extend a scheme to take in vulnerable child migrants from Europe, but charities said thousands of children travelling alone would still be left in danger.

The immigration minister, Robert Goodwill, said Britain would resettle 480 unaccompanied child migrants from the European Union, instead of the 350 previously agreed upon.

Under the so-called Dubs amendment passed by parliament last year, Britain agreed to accept vulnerable refugee children who arrived in the European Union before March 20, 2016.

But in February, the government announced plans to drop the scheme it said encouraged human trafficking.

Charities working with refugees welcomed the announcement but expressed concern about the thousands more lone migrant children in Europe who will not benefit from the scheme.

"This will be a much needed lifeline for these 130 children," Hayley Cull, head of campaigns at the U.N.'s children agency UNICEF in Britain, said in a statement.

"But this Dubs lifeline will soon be gone for other children in danger. We still need a long-term plan so that children never have to make dangerous journeys into and across Europe in order to reach safety," she added.

The changes have been made because pledges from local authorities in Britain to take in 130 child refugees had not been included in the previous total, according to the government.

The scheme does not include unaccompanied children who have family ties to Britain, which European Union rules say it must take in under so-called Dublin rules.

Over 200 children have already been brought to Britain from France under the Dubs scheme after the clearance of a makeshift camp in Calais, known as "the Jungle," last October.

France moved more than 6,000 migrants, many fleeing poverty and war in the Middle East and Africa, from the Calais camp to reception centres around the country to calm local anger.

But hundreds, especially unaccompanied children, have gravitated back to the northern port, hoping to cross the short stretch of sea to Britain by leaping onto trucks and trains, or even walking through the tunnel under the Channel.

Refugees and migrants sleeping rough in the French port, some of them unaccompanied children, have been teargassed, beaten and abused by police since the camp's clearance, a report found on Monday.

Around 30,000 unaccompanied children arrived in Greece and Italy alone in 2016, according to UNICEF.

(Reporting by Anna Pujol-Mazzini @annapmzn, Editing by Ros Russell. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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