GOVERNMENT CRITICISED OVER NEW DUBS AMENDMENT CRITERIA

24 November 2016
Charities and MPs have condemned the Home Office for introducing new eligibility criteria for unaccompanied child refugees seeking to come to the UK.
The criteria state that to qualify for transfer to the UK under the Dubs amendment, children must be either:
  • aged 12 or under
  • at high risk of sexual exploitation
  • aged 15 or under and of Sudanese or Syrian Nationality
  • aged under 18 and the accompanying sibling of a child that meets one of the three criteria outlined above.

These new, highly restrictive criteria penalise some of the most vulnerable children caught up in the refugee crisis and undermine the essence of the Dubs amendment.
 
The shadow Home Office minister Carolyn Harris described the new criteria as a disgrace and not in the spirit of the Dubs amendment:
 
“A child is a child until the age of 18. It is wrong to restrict a child’s rights to transfer based on their age.”
 
Help Refugees is challenging the Secretary of State’s interpretation and implementation of the Dubs amendment, including whether these new criteria are lawful. It said:
 
“As a result [of these criteria] children as young as 13 are just as at risk as they were. An Afghan child of this age is no less deserving of safeguarding than a Syrian one.”
 
This comes as news that up to a third of children tracked by the Refugee Youth Service have gone missing from reception centres in France since the demolition of the Calais refugee camp.
 
It’s clear that the Government needs to act now to help the most vulnerable children and bring them to the UK without delay before more go missing.
 
YOU CAN HELP
 
Please write to Amber Rudd MP and ask her to stay true to the spirit of the Dubs amendment and:
  • Rather than applying arbitrary criteria, take each child’s unique situation and vulnerabilities into account.
  • Not apply the new criteria retrospectively.
  • Fulfil the Government’s commitment to transfer half of total number of vulnerable children that were in the Calais camp at the time of demolition to the UK before Christmas.
 
You can also write to Ministers Robert Goodwill and Baroness Williams, who were questioned about the new guidelines in Parliament last week.
 
A full briefing is available briefing from Seeking Sanctuary.
Image: Flickr.com
 Read the full briefing from Seeking Sanctuary
 
Guardian News
Home Office block on Afghan and Eritrean teen refugees a ‘disgrace’
 
Help Refugees
A third of children missing from reception centres in France

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