The Guardian
Migrant children are being failed by UK, says Lords committee report
Government accused of dismissing its responsibility to care for unaccompanied minors as ‘somebody else’s problem’
Tuesday 26 July 2016 00.01 BST Last modified on Tuesday 26 July 2016 13.49 BST
The UK is shirking its responsibility to care for thousands of unaccompanied migrant children, dismissing them as “somebody else’s problem”, a report has concluded.Unaccompanied migrant children have been systematically failed by the EU and its member states, including the UK, and as a result, thousands are living in “squalid” conditions, treated with suspicion by authorities and preyed upon by traffickers and people smugglers, according to the House of Lords EU home affairs subcommittee report. More than 10,000 children are estimated to have gone missing.
The UK’s reluctance to take its share of these children is “deplorable”, says the report, entitled Children in crisis: unaccompanied migrant children in the EU.
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Financial pressures have encouraged a culture of disbelief across the EU, where officials sometimes find it preferable to overestimate the age of an unaccompanied child with no documentation to avoid having to take responsibility for a minor at greater expense, according to the report.
A Save the Children official told the committee that the “overstretching of resources had created incentives for national authorities not to treat minors as children”.
The report highlights the difficulties that authorities have in correctly assessing the age of a child and notes that inaccurate age assessments have meant that some children have been wrongly held in detention centres intended for adults. There is a “widespread reluctance to believe unaccompanied migrant children’s narratives”, the report states.
In 2015, 88,265 unaccompanied children applied for asylum in the EU, including 3,045 to the UK, an increase of 56% on the 2014 UK figure. At least 137 children have drowned in the Mediterranean since the start of this year.
The report says: “We are concerned that the EU and its member states, including the UK, may have lost sight of the plight of unaccompanied migrant children. [The children] face a culture of disbelief and suspicion. Authorities try to avoid taking responsibility for their care and protection.”
The committee was told about children in Italy and Greece “burning or otherwise damaging their fingertips in order to avoid registration”, because they were afraid of being detained or forcibly returned to transit countries.
As well as being exposed to “deplorable” conditions in camps, children were often found in emergency accommodation such as hotels or schools, without “reliable access to food, water, sanitation, official information or any form of legal advice”, the report states. Others were found “sleeping in car parks, metro stations, hospital waiting rooms or on the street”.
Save the Children’s Italy programme “found that 50% of the children they are dealing with have a sexually transmitted infection. That is evidence of them being sexually exploited in transit,” the Lords committee heard. Depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder were all common, according to aid agency representatives.
The committee expresses concern that large numbers of young adults who left their countries of origin as children were being returned to those countries without adequate support. It heard that 657 former child refugees have been returned to Iraq since 2007.
David Cameron made a commitment in May to accept 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children from Greece, Italy and France, but last week, Lord Dubs, the Labour peer who fought for more children to be given sanctuary, expressed concern that so far he knew of no children being resettled under the agreed terms.
The chair of the committee, Lady Prashar, said: “The current refugee crisis is the greatest humanitarian challenge the EU has faced in its lifetime. At the sharp end of this crisis are unaccompanied migrant children, who are being failed across the board. We found a clear failure among EU countries, including the UK, to shoulder their fair share of the burden. We deeply regret the UK government’s reluctance to relocate migrant children to the UK, in particular those living in terrible conditions in the camps near the channel ports.
“We urge the EU institutions and the UK government to address these complex problems urgently. At the end of the day, unaccompanied child migrants are children, first and foremost, and we need to work together to care for them in a decent and humane way.”
The Lords committee report is critical of all member states for making “so little progress in relocating unaccompanied migrant children within the EU”.
“In particular, we deplore the continuing reluctance of the UK government to show solidarity with its European partners in helping to relocate such children,” the report says, adding that despite the UK’s vote to leave the EU, Britain remains a full member, with all the responsibilities that entails.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “More than 20 children have been accepted for transfer to the UK since the act was given royal assent and the majority of these have already arrived. We are consulting with local authorities across the country to confirm available capacity and ensure appropriate support systems are in place.
“We are also in active discussions with the UNHCR [United Nations high commissioner for refugees] and the Italian, Greek and French governments to strengthen and speed up mechanisms to identify, assess and transfer children to the UK and ensure this in their best interests.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/26/child-refugee-fight-caught-publics-imagination-lord-dubs
The Guardian
Child refugee fight has caught public's imagination, says peer
Lord Dubs tables new proposal after immigration bill amendment to let 3,000 unaccompanied minors into UK defeated
Heather Stewart and Rowena Mason
Tuesday 26 April 2016 10.34 BST
Lord Alf Dubs, the Labour peer leading the charge to urge the government to do more to help child refugees stranded in Europe, says he is determined to continue the fight because it has “caught the public’s imagination”.Dubs, who was brought to Britain from Czechoslovakia as part of the government-backed Kindertransport scheme before the outbreak of the second world war, tabled an amendment to the government’s immigration bill in the Lords, which would have forced the government to accept 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees.
His proposal, which emerged from Labour’s refugee taskforce, chaired by former minister Yvette Cooper, was narrowly defeated in the House of Commons on Monday night but Dubs has now tabled an alternative proposal, which will be debated in the Lords on Tuesday.
Dubs told the Guardian he had received many messages of support from well-wishers concerned about the plight of up to 95,000 children who are thought to have reached Europe without their families after fleeing Syria and other war zones in the Middle East.
“I’m now getting so many messages from people I don’t even know, saying how much they want this to succeed,” he said. “It’s really struck a chord: it’s caught the public’s imagination that as a country we can do something for these children.”
The government invoked financial privilege to prevent the proposal being bounced back to the Commons unchanged because MPs take precedence on spending matters; but the new amendment does not mention a specific number of refugees, instead saying it “shall be determined by the government in consultation with local authorities”.
The government argues that it is already helping children within the refugee camps in the Middle East who have fled the war in Syria and is concerned that by bringing unaccompanied children into Britain, it could create a “pull factor”, encouraging more to come.
On Tuesday David Cameron’s official spokeswoman did not comment on how the Government will respond to Dubs’s new amendment, but said the prime minister was concerned not to create incentives for refugees to put themselves and their children at risk.
She told a Westminster media briefing: “What we have looked at very carefully here is how do we best protect vulnerable people and how can we best help refugees, how do we not fuel a system that is incentivising people to be exploited by trafficking gangs and make perilous journeys.
“There have been UNHCR experts who have talked about the concerns that if you pursue an approach which offers resettlement for unaccompanied children in Europe, you could see families seeking to separate off from their children in order to create new ways of getting to Europe. That’s not something we want to see.
“Refugees have already been through traumatic times. We don’t want to see them putting lives further at risk. That’s why we are taking an approach focusing on resettlement from the region, led by the experts.”
James Brokenshire, a Home Office minister, said in Monday night’s debate that the government could not support a policy that would “inadvertently create a situation in which families see an advantage in sending children alone, ahead and in the hands of traffickers, putting their lives at risk by attempting treacherous sea crossings to Europe which would be the worst of all outcomes”.
But Dubs said that was a “squalid” argument. He also rejected the idea that once they have reached the shores of Europe, unaccompanied children are safe.
“Whether they’re in Greece, in Macedonia, in Italy, or in Calais and Dunkirk, these children are being left to their own devices at best and at worst they’re in trouble,” he said. He blamed David Cameron for the government’s intransigence, saying: “I think the prime minister is taking the lead on this.”
The shadow immigration minister, Keir Starmer, also promised on Tuesday morning that the fight would go on to force the UK to do more.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Starmer said: “We can’t turn our backs on these vulnerable children in Europe, and history will judge us for that.” He added: “It’s not over: the fight will go on.”
He also reacted angrily to the suggestion that by helping children who were already in mainland Europe, the government would encourage others to make the risky journey.
“What it boils down to is to say we must abandon these children to their fate, lest if we do anything, others may follow in their footsteps. I am not prepared to take that position.”
MPs voted against the proposals by 294 to 276 on Monday after the Home Office persuaded most potential Tory rebels that it was doing enough to help child refugees in Syria and neighbouring countries. The amendment was backed by Labour, the Scottish National party and the Liberal Democrats.
Only a handful of Conservative MPs voted in favour of accepting the child refugees. One of them, Tania Mathias, said accepting children at risk of harm in Europe was the “right thing to do”.
Cooper had urged Conservative MPs to vote for the Dubs proposal. After the debate, she said: “It is deeply disappointing that the government has rejected the Dubs amendment – albeit with a reduced majority. Thousands of children are sleeping rough in Europe tonight, vulnerable to exploitation and abuse and Britain should not be turning its back. Alf Dubs will keep pressing this issue in the Lords and we must do our bit to help.”
One teenage refugee from Syria, who met Cooper and Dubs for an event outside parliament, said the government was missing the point when it argued that child refugees were better helped in the region.
The minor, who cannot be named, travelled through 17 countries from Syria before reaching Calais and then the UK. Speaking through an interpreter, he said: “Most of the children in the camps do have their families and parents with them but those stranded around Europe and in Calais are very vulnerable because other people could do something to them. That is the fundamental difference between the children in Europe and those in the camps.”
At least 95,000 unaccompanied child refugees are estimated to have applied for asylum in Europe last year.
Europol, the EU’s criminal intelligence agency, estimated in January that 10,000 children had gone missing after arriving in Europe, warning that many had been taken by criminal gangs.
Alfred Dubs was born in Prague, then in Czechoslovakia, Dubs was one of 669 Czech-resident, mainly Jewish, children saved by English stockbroker Nicholas Winton and others from the Nazis on the Kindertransport (Dubs' father was Jewish). His father had fled to England the day the Nazis arrived in Czechoslovakia and young Alf was to meet him at Liverpool Street station. He later said that he clearly remembered leaving Prague station at age six and not touching the food pack given to him by his mother for the next two days. His mother was initially denied a visa but was able to join him and his father in London shortly afterwards.
Dubs learned the facts when Nicholas Winton's story was broadcast on That's Life! in 1988. He later met Winton in person and campaigned for him to be honoured.
Winton was eventually knighted in 2002.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/03/nicholas-winton-saved-me-nazis-kindertransport-jewish-children-friend
The Guardian
Nicholas Winton saved me from the Nazis. I only found out 50 years later
Alf Dubs
In 1939 I arrived in London on a Kindertransport from Prague. Decades later the special man who rescued hundreds of Jewish children became a firm friend
Friday 3 July 2015 14.16 BST
It was long after I arrived on a Kindertransport in London in the summer of 1939 that I first heard of Nicky Winton. For many years I simply knew I had arrived on a Kindertransport, but had no idea who had made it possible for me, and hundreds of other mainly Jewish children, to escape the Nazis.
Then, in 1988 Esther Rantzen featured Nicky on her TV programme That’s Life, and described what he had done. The result was that all of us who came on a Kindertransport from Prague soon began to meet him, and we kept in touch regularly.
In Prague in 1938 and early 1939, he saw the impending tragedy and was determined to save Jewish children from the Nazis
He was invited everywhere, Prague, Israel, all over Britain. Everyone wanted him to come and speak about what he had achieved. I doubt he enjoyed all the accolades, but I hope he felt a quiet pride at having saved so many lives.
Over the years I got to know him better, and we became friends. I was a Labour MP and then a peer, and he loved talking about politics and the earlier generation of Labour politicians, such as Nye Bevan. But it was only when I read his daughter Barbara’s excellent biography of Nicky that I learned how in 1953 and 1954 he stood as a Labour candidate in the elections for Maidenhead council. Not surprisingly he lost, as even then Maidenhead, where he lived, was a Conservative area.
His interest in politics remained throughout his life, and he loved talking about what was going on in parliament. His views were certainly to the left of the Labour party and he had some scathing criticisms of the Labour government.
The last time I met him was a few weeks ago, at his 106th birthday party in Maidenhead. He was becoming frailer, and protested that his memory was not as good as it used to be. I told him that his memory was still better than that of many younger people. Of course there was a birthday cake with candles shaped in the figures for his age but he needed help to blow them out.
I treasure my memory of that last occasion but also of many others. I think it was at his 104th birthday party that I asked him how he was and his characteristic reply was: “I am all right from the neck upwards.”
Nicky Winton was truly a special human being. In Prague in 1938 and early 1939, he saw the impending tragedy and was determined to save Jewish children from the Nazis. The difficulties were enormous, not the least of which was to persuade the Home Office to allow unaccompanied children to enter the country. A lesser person might have said “It’s too difficult, not my problem”. He could easily have walked away but didn’t, and instead devoted himself to succeeding.
I shall miss him dreadfully, as will the hundreds whose lives he saved and also their children and grandchildren. Thank you, Nicky.
On this day in 1847 Liberia declares its independence.
The Republic of Liberia, beginning as a settlement of the American Colonization Society (ACS), declared its independence on July 26, 1847.
The United States did not recognize Liberia's independence until during the American Civil War on February 5, 1862. Between January 7, 1822 and the American Civil War, more than 15,000 freed and free-born Black Americans from United States and 3,198 Afro-Caribbeans relocated to the settlement.[1] The Black American settlers carried their culture with them to Liberia. The Liberian constitution and flag were modeled after those of the United States. On January 3, 1848 Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a wealthy, free-born Black American from Virginia who settled in Liberia, was elected as Liberia's first president after the people proclaimed independence.[1]
Liberia is the only African republic to have self-proclaimed independence without gaining independence through revolt from any other nation, being Africa's first and oldest republic. Liberia maintained and kept its independence during the European colonial era.
In 1822, the American Colonization Society began sending African-American volunteers to the Pepper Coast to establish a colony for freed African-Americans. By 1867, the ACS (and state-related chapters) had assisted in the migration of more than 13,000 African Americans to Liberia.[14] These free African-Americans and their descendants married within their community and came to identify as Americo-Liberians. Many were of mixed race and educated in American culture; they did not identify with the indigenous natives of the tribes they encountered. They intermarried largely within the colonial community, developing an ethnic group that had a cultural tradition infused with American notions of political republicanism and Protestant Christianity.[2]
Map of Liberia Colony in the 1830s, created by the ACS, and also showing Mississippi Colony and other state-sponsored colonies.
The ACS, the private organization supported by prominent American politicians such as Abraham Lincoln, Henry Clay, and James Monroe, believed repatriation of free blacks was preferable to widespread emancipation of slaves.[3] Similar state-based organizations established colonies in Mississippi-in-Africa and the Republic of Maryland, which were later annexed by Liberia.
The Americo-Liberian settlers did not identify with the indigenous peoples they encountered, especially those in communities of the more isolated "bush." They knew nothing of their cultures, languages or animist religion. Encounters with tribal Africans in the bush often developed as violent confrontations. The colonial settlements were raided by the Kru and Grebo from their inland chiefdoms. Because of feeling set apart and superior by their culture and education to the indigenous peoples, the Americo-Liberians developed as a small elite that held on to political power. It excluded the indigenous tribesmen from birthright citizenship in their own lands until 1904, in a repetition of the United States' treatment of Native Americans. Because of ethnocentrism and the cultural gap, the Americo-Liberians envisioned creating a western-style state to which the tribesmen should assimilate. They encouraged religious organizations to set up missions and schools to educate the indigenous peoples.
- Lewis, M. Paul; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2015). "Liberia". Ethnologue (18th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
- Wegmann, Andrew N (May 5, 2010). "Christian Community and the Development of an Americo-Liberian Identity, 1824–1878". Louisiana State University.
- Maggie Montesinos Sale (1997). The Slumbering Volcano: American Slave Ship Revolts and the Production of Rebellious Masculinity. Duke University Press. p. 264. ISBN 0-8223-1992-6.
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