House of Lords votes to let lone child refugees come to Britain
Source: The Guardian
Peers voted by 306 votes to 204, a majority of 102, to amend the immigration bill in order to require the government to let the children, currently in Europe, come to Britain. They warned the government it must act fast to take in unaccompanied child refugees amid complaints from cross-party MPs that child migrants in Calais were enduring terrible conditions. The vote came as three unaccompanied Syrian children, including one orphaned by war, arrived in the UK from the Calais refugee camp to be reunited with relatives. <snip>
Volunteers working in Calais told them many of the children had been badly treated by the French police, with some suffering from eye blistering after being hit with tear gas as they tried to approach the Eurotunnel tracks. Others had had their shoes removed by the police to discourage them from trying to walk to the railway. Still others had been hit with water cannon when much of the camp was destroyed last month.
The MPs also heard about the deteriorating condition of S, a 17-year-old Iranian boy travelling without his family who has been on hunger strike for the past three weeks, and who has stitched his lips together to protest against human rights abuses in the camp. Allen said she felt “embarrassed” that British volunteers were having to pick up responsibility for these children in the absence of effective help from the French and UK governments. She said immigration ministers should travel to Calais to understand the situation that unaccompanied children were living in.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/21/house-of-lords-votes-to-let-lone-child-refugees-come-to-britain
Interesting news item, especially regarding UK vs French treatment scenarios
= new reply since forum marked as read
A lone male, of Daesh fighter age, is somehow called "boy", and "children"?
If stitching his lips is what it takes to get into Britain, he (and others) might be ordered to do just that.
