Write Theresa May, Amber Rudd, Your MP, and MSPs Today: SAVE the Calais Children Before Its Too Late.

The Peace and Justice Centre is calling on the government to take in all those children remaining in the Calais refugee camp who have the right to be in Britain before the French begin demolishing the camp – possibly this weekend. We urge you to write to the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary Amber Rudd and your MP to urge them to protect these children and all the children at the camp. It is critical that we act now.

Delays in acting to process their asylum claims mean that many of those who remain face the prospect of having to flee the camp in search of shelter elsewhere.  More than 1,000 children in the camp face a very uncertain future this weekend as the French government prepare to demolish the camp. 178 of those children have the right to be in the UK with their family. 18 of them have gone missing. About 200 more have the right to be here under the Dublin agreement or  under the Lord Dubs Amendment, to take in an unspecified number of other unaccompanied refugee children.  The Government has known about these children since July 2016, but has failed to act.

Here is a Model Email to send to the Prime Minister to urge her to safeguard the remaining unaccompanied child refugees in Calais and ensure our Government fulfils the pledge made by Parliament in the Dubs amendment to the Immigration Bill in July, and welcome our share of unaccompanied children from across Europe.

Please also email or telephone the Home Secretary, Rt Hon Amber Rudd MP, to ask her to fulfill the promise she made in Parliament this week to fast track the Calais children who are eligible for asylum in the UK and insure they are admitted before the Calais camp is bulldoze. In addition please urge her to press her French counterpart to insure that accommodation is found for the remaining Calais children – over 600 children – before the French government demolishes the Calais camp. Here is a Model Email you can copy and paste to her at: privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Or telephone her on: Tel: 020 7035 4848

On this ocassion we ask you also to write to your MP to ask him or her to do urge the PM and the Home Secretary to take the same actions. Again click here for a model email to send.

Finally, you can also write to your MSPs to ask them to support Motion S5M-01968: Ben Macpherson, MSP, Edinburgh Northern and Leith, Scottish National Part on Protection of Children in Calais. 

Click Here for a Model Email to send to them.

The motion states “That Parliament condemns the news that there are a reported 1,022 unaccompanied children in the Calais refugee camp, which is set to be demolished under orders from the French Government; understands with concern that 129 children went unaccounted following a previous eviction of the camp; believes that, under the so-called Dubs’ Amendment, 387 of the children now have the legal right to be in the UK, but that the UK Government has yet to issue a reassurance that all of these children with family ties will be granted entry; understands that a letter signed by Muslim and Jewish faith leaders and the ex-Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams, describes the camp as “a stain” on British and French consciences and that UNICEF has appealed to the UK Government to speed up the transfer of child refugees, and calls on the UK Government to take such action to help ensure the safety and wellbeing of both the 387 children that have the legal right to be in the UK and the 635 others whom it believes are still in crucial need of protection.”