LEWISHAM STOP THE WAR
COALITION
Points
that You May Want to Refer to When Contacting Your MP and Councillors
As you know
the refugee camp in Calais will be closing imminently. Our last census
identified 1022 unaccompanied minors living in
the camp. At least 387 of these kids have a legal
right to be in the UK.
Today
we are asking you to take action
by writing to your local MP, and then following up with a phone call, to apply
pressure to encourage the government to act quickly to meet their commitment to
protect the unaccompanied children currently living in the Calais camp who have
legal right to safety in the UK.
To write to
any of your local or national representatives, you can use Write to Them: just
enter your home postcode.
Why do these kids have a legal right
to be in the UK?
Either
under Dublin III
·
Dublin
III entitles them to be reunited with nuclear family members living in the UK
·
There
are 175 unaccompanied minors currently living in the Calais camp with nuclear
family members in the UK
·
So
far just under a hundred of these young people have been reunited with their
families, via Safe Passage. This process can take up to nine months and during
this time many children are still risking their lives to try to get to the UK
because they have no faith in the system and because the living conditions in
the Calais camp are so abhorrent.
Or
under the Alf Dubs amendment
·
The
Dubs amendment, which was passed in May 2016 is supposed to bring an
unspecified number of the most vulnerable unaccompanied children in Europe to
safety in the UK, much like the Kinder transport during the Second World War.
·
212
children have been registered by teams working with young people on the ground.
This list has been submitted to the Home Office by our partners, Citizens UK.
Together, our teams are ready to work with the British authorities to
facilitate this process.
·
So
far no action has been ostensibly taken to implement the Dubs amendment and
there has been no needs assessment of the children in Calais from the British
authorities.
·
Now,
working across political parties Stella Creasy MP is proposing the Dub II law –
an amendment to the Children and Social Work Bill which will force the
government to protect these children. To find out more about this law click
here.
See below for
suggested text for your letter or email. Please do share this with friends and
family. If we act now, together we really can save
lives.
Suggested Letter Template to your MP
Dear
As my MP I’m writing to you to ask you to pledge to
safeguard child refugees in Europe.
The Dubs Amendment was passed by parliament in March
2016- it committed us to taking our fair share of the refugee children in
Europe who have fled persecution. Yet six months on not a single child has come
here under its protection – now there are over 1000 children alone in the
Calais camp, which the French Government has said it will evict by the end of
October 2016. These children live in tents with strangers, begging for food and
hiding from traffickers for want of someone to process their paperwork. The
French asylum system has ground to a halt- without action by the UK these
children face a very uncertain future.
The Home Office currently has the paperwork for 387 children
currently in the Calais refugee camps who have the right to be in the UK
legally under either international law or the Dubs amendment. That’s why a
cross party group of MPs has tabled the Dubs II amendment to the Children and
Social Work Bill to require the Government to put in place a safeguarding
process for these children and so protect their welfare. This will be debated
in the Lords in October 2016 and will then come to House of Commons for
approval.
There is not a moment to lose in the fight to protect these children. When the
French evicted part of the camp earlier this year, 100 children went missing.
With your help we can ensure these children have a better future. Please let me
know if you will pledge your support for this campaign- or let the office of
Stella Creasy MP know if you wish to cosign this amendment.
Thank you for your support for this important campaign.