Guest post: "Britain must not turn its back on child refugees in Europe"

[MumsnetGuestPosts]

I can only imagine my desperation if I had to consider sending my boys away just to keep them safe.

But if I ever had to, I’d want a mother like Karen to be there for them. Karen is an amazing woman who told her story of fostering a refugee boy and brought huge attention to a campaign to get more refugee children settled safely in Britain.

This week, MPs had the chance to vote to let mothers like Karen keep doing what they want to do - opening their homes and their hearts to refugee children who are in Europe all alone without a mum or dad to look after them. I'm ashamed to say that they did not, and that the government decided to close the door to the thousands of children who need our help. The campaign was only asking for 3,000 children to come to Britain. To put that in context – that would be just five children per parliamentary constituency, and nowhere near the 10,000 mostly Jewish children that Britain saved through the Kindertransport before the Second World War.

I took a special interest in this vote because I have been working at Theirworld to help create school places for Syrian refugee children in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, where many fleeing families arrive first. I have been focused on how to make sure that children never embark on a further dangerous journey to find a safe haven. When I saw that the British parliament was considering a vote to offer a welcome to 3,000 lone children who really need us to open our hearts and homes, I wanted to add my support. So last week I wrote to my local MP for the first time ever. I wanted his backing for refugee children, an issue that goes well beyond party politics. I know lots of Mumsnetters contacted their MPs too and have heard from many of you on Twitter. It was devastating to see the government vote down the proposal to give safety to lone refugee children in Europe.

But this does not stop there. The House of Lords last night voted to back the bill thanks to the efforts of Lord Dubs and other campaigners. So it goes back to the House of Commons next Tuesday with a chance for MPs to reconsider their vote and help 3,000 lone children.

One of the ways you can help them think again is to sign this petition. If enough of us do it then perhaps a few more MPs will listen and reconsider their vote. In pushing for this change we won't be on our own – we have the backing of lots of energetic dedicated groups like Citizens UK, Save the Children, HelpRefugees and others. This weekend the former Archbishop of Canterbury gave his blessing, arguing that this is a chance to honour what our parents and grandparents did in the face of an earlier catastrophe.

This is not a question of sparking a new political controversy - that is not my way and not the Mumsnet way, I don't think - it is a matter of simple humanity. While we can't ensure that every child is safe in his or her own country, we can act to prevent children dying on our doorstep here in Europe, and ensure a safe home and education and hope for a better future.

As long as this terrible crisis runs on and horribly on - then we have obligations to the children who are here in our continent. Our MPs now have a second chance to help these vulnerable children and we should help them to take it.

Please join me, and sign here: Britain must not turn its back on child refugees in Europe.

OneWing - they aren't migrants they are refugees and yes, I would happily contribute to whatever effort was required.

Fanakapan - I don't believe for one second that you are Saudi, or Arab.

I never claimed to be.

I attended a Muslim school in Riyadh.

And I know what a Saudi education teaches.

Cameron is absolutely doing the right thing supporting refugees closer to Syria and taking people only from camps in the ME.
Many other course of action encourages the evil £4bn a year people trafficking industry and is the cause of more suffering, not less.

Less sentimentalism and virtuous posturing, please, and more clear thinking about the bigger picture.

IPityThePontipines

"they aren't migrants they are refugees"

Refugees are required to seek asylum in the first safe country they reach. Those in safe European countries such as France who trying to get into Britain are no such thing, but are economic migrants instead.

"yes, I would happily contribute to whatever effort was required"

By housing them in your own home, right? Right? Or do you mean "contribute a microscopic fraction of the public cost of supporting them"?

I am heartily sick of posters I've seen on other threads spouting all kinds of ill informed prejudiced nonsense coming onto this thread claiming to be fountains of common sense.

OHuge - the people are fleeing anyway, they are already across Europe anyway. This situation is beyond NIMBY containment somewhere outside of Europe.

If you can't see that, then you are the ones not thinking clearly, because you are woefully underestimating the scale of what is taking place.

It is not possible to house 10million people and counting, solely around the countries bordering Syria. They will move beyond that, as they already have. That is the bigger picture.

OneWing - Yes I would house them. Yes I would happily pay extra in my taxes to pay what was needed to support what is a global emergency.

And yes, I already support people in Syria because we have family there who cannot escape.

So don't you dare, ever accuse me of that nonsensical word of the month "virtue signalling".

Trouble is its all so unquantifiable isn't t? Nobody knows how old these children are, where they are, where they came from, where there parents are, have they been sent on ahead of the other family members or are these orphaned children? Why haven't the genuine orphans been taken into foster care in the countries they have passed through?

If they have been separated from their family, in effect lost, why aren't they repatriated to the official camps so that their families can locate them? It's all far too vague for me to understand.

'Refugees are required to seek asylum in the first safe country they reach.'

This is often Greece, onewing. How does masses of refugees staying in impoverished Greece make sense? People at Idomeni and Moria are in awful conditions, at risk of hypothermia and pneumonia and with babies dying inside women lying alone in tents with no medical care. How does shoving all the responsibility on them make sense?

Refugee status depends on the circumstances you left, such as persecution and danger. It doesn't change if you continue your journey to your intended destination.

Manatee, Cameron has done fuck all. Applaud him all you like for that. Nothing sentimental about wanting to save people from death and misery. Not doing so will only shore up further instability, resentment and anger. Also, supporting Cameron in pissing all over the treaties we are bound to doesn't make sense.

'While it suits some only too well for us to believe they're all little kids wandering around in a tearful, bewildered state somewhere, is it really like that? Or is it possible many have willingly made their own way elsewhere, are now refusing to engage with agencies, weren't really children in the first place or any number of other reasons?'

Nice bit of victim blaming there puzzled. The level of denial is unbelievable. It's almost funny in a fucking horrific way that people are also denying that thesekids have really gone missing.

It doesn't matter if they're not 'little' for fucks sake.They are children. I left home at sixteen and was utterly lost. I can't imagine how they feel, the sheer terror. Shocking to see these attitudes on a parenting forum. No, a fourteen year old may not be 'little' but they are vulnerable and have a legal right to safety.

emilybohemia

I have no particular interest in engaging with you, but since you address me directly, I'll reply.

"This is often Greece, onewing. How does masses of refugees staying in impoverished Greece make sense? People at Idomeni and Moria are in awful conditions, at risk of hypothermia and pneumonia and with babies dying inside women lying alone in tents with no medical care. How does shoving all the responsibility on them make sense?"

Because it creates a firebreak that prevents the rest of Europe being inundated. If you thought that people's hearts were too hard last year, the tide has turned completely in 2016. Have a look at Austria, where a genuinely far-right politician won the first round of the presidential election a few days ago. If you want Nazism to return to Europe, then by all means keep sending unlimited numbers of migrants through. Personally, I don't want the Nazis, and I don't want the migrants either: stopping the latter will stop the former.

"Refugee status depends on the circumstances you left, such as persecution and danger. It doesn't change if you continue your journey to your intended destination."

For the millionth time, yes it absolutely does change. If you are in a safe country like France and you do not claim asylum there but press on to your favourite "intended" country, then you are an economic migrant, not a refugee. We have no obligation whatsoever to cater for migrants' "intentions".

"Manatee, Cameron has done fuck all. Applaud him all you like for that. Nothing sentimental about wanting to save people from death and misery. Not doing so will only shore up further instability, resentment and anger. Also, supporting Cameron in pissing all over the treaties we are bound to doesn't make sense."

Cameron has done far too much already, but he's absolutely right to avoid creating a pull factor by taking any migrants from Europe itself. If we take any more, they should all be sent to Alf Dubs' home so he can look after them himself.

Pontipines - what's your tax rate? Let's say for argument's sake you pay higher rate at currently 40%. Are you prepared to pay 41% to support 3000 unaccompanied "children"? Great, course you are.

Come November when the people traffickers are rubbing their hands together with glee, are you OK to raise that to 43% because there are now a further 5000?

Next April there are now 20,000 - are you OK paying 50%? How about 62% to cover their families?

What's your personal limit?

What happens if 1500 families of these 3000 alleged "children" show up and demand their rights, are you OK to raise your taxes also to support those families?

Who are you going to prioritise? The first 3000 + their families, or would you rather take 10000 "children"?

My 5 year old daughter has waited a year for therapy (mental health), how long should she wait? Are you OK with her waiting e.g., four more years whilst these 3000 "children" are seen first?

PP was right - Ms Brown would better wield her considerable influence to tackle trafficking rather than whatever you might call "this".

Why hasn't Sarah Brown come back to debate any of these issues?

She probably has under her secret nm account.

'Because it creates a firebreak that prevents the rest of Europe being inundated'.

I think you're wrong, onewing. It makes the situation far more dangerous, as does the present deal with Turkey. I think it's creating a powder keg. It's also incredibly cruel, justifying suffering to keep 'them' out of Europe, not that you give a shit.

The far right is growing in countries like Hungary, Poland, Slovakia where there are barely any refugees so your argument that far right support grows because of countries accepting refugees doesn't quite stand up. These countries havenot had as much economic growth as they expected witin the EU and the refugees are a scapegoat as Roma were before in some of those countries..

Support for the far right tends to increase in times of economic uncertainty.It also occurs when there is restricted press freedom, when governments largely control the press and use it to spread hate propaganda by using dehumanising language. Here is a link to the Holocaust Memorial Trust where dehumanisation is categorised as part of the steps to genocide. hmd.org.uk/page/path-genocide

Ignoring those fleeing war, persecution and terrorism and building fences to keep them out won't stop the Nazis. It is exactly what the Nazis want and Isis too.

Do you know that when you say it is ok for refugees to suffer without medical care in dire circumstances in Greece because it is a 'firebreak' that you sound very far right too? The far right often use supposedly pragmatic arguments that the refugees will be an economic drain.

The growth of the far right in some countries has led to mainstream parties becoming more right leaning and populist in order to try to shore up support from those voters. So in Hungary, Orban increasingly resemles Jobbikand in the UK we have Cameron applauding Bulgaria's harsh measures for border control and references to refugees as bunches of migrants. This has had the effect of very dodgy views appearing increasingly in the mainstream and appearing more acceptable. As a previous poster said, this is vile and uncivilised. Cameron now ignores international law, as well as persecuting the disabled.

Not accepting refugees or subjecting them to increasingly horrible conditions will not stop Nazis.The fear machine of the press can be fuelled up at any time.

in the UK we have Cameron applauding Bulgaria's harsh measures for border control and references to refugees as bunches of migrants. This has had the effect of very dodgy views appearing increasingly in the mainstream and appearing more acceptable. As a previous poster said, this is vile and uncivilised. Cameron now ignores international law, as well as persecuting the disabled.

So why insist upon sending refugees here, France isn't good enough, here is not good enough, where is?

Nazis? Eh?

Support for the far right tends to increase in times of economic uncertainty. It also occurs when there is restricted press freedom, when governments largely control the press and use it to spread hate propaganda by using dehumanising language.
So that restricted press freedom would describe what happened after the attacks in Cologne and other cities ...when it wasn't reported for days...even the police felt under pressure to hush it up....

'If you want Nazism to return to Europe, then by all means keep sending unlimited numbers of migrants through'.

Children sleeping rough. Kept in cages. Not being schooled. Beaten by fascists and not protected by police.

Adults not allowed to work. Inadequate medical care. Landlords often unwilling to house them. Money and valuables taken from them and not returned. Abduction and beatings by locals which police turn a blind eye to. Those beating hailed as heroes.

Beatings with truncheons. Made to kneel in mud. Babies born dead. Babies moaning from the cold in tents outside in winter.

Babies not given milk. Food and water often not provided.

Refugee children and adults in boats shot at.

Numbers written on hands with black marker. Forced to detention centre. Children and adults woken each night by armed and masked guards to be searched and checked.

Blind woman imprisoned for trying to cross a border.

Refugees shot and killed for trying to pass border.

Untrained people trying to comfort parents whose second child drowned minutes ´before. Man with lacerations all over his back hiding in disused building.

Thousands of drowned babies, mums and dads. Thousands of disappearing kids.

Onewing, despite all the measures to keep 'them' out, are you sure that Europe can be prevented from beginning to resemble a far right nightmare?

Nobody wants any of that. You have no spare room and others have things that prevents them helping too. Nothing is good enough for you by the sounds of it, they were safe in Turkey and I am sorry things are so bad, it's not my fault.

Support for the far right tends to increase in times of economic uncertainty.It also occurs when there is restricted press freedom, when governments largely control the press and use it to spread hate propaganda by using dehumanising language

The conditions that caused the Far right to come last time are the same ish but also VERY DIFFERENT.

If anything its the press that is not reporting whats happening on the ground with people trying to deal with refugees in their country.

Like cologne, so many women attacked, their friends knew, their family knew, but it wasnt coming out in the press.

If anything press is being controlled to hide the identity of perpetrators.

Its a huge muddled mess, there are genuine refugees seeking help from the horrific situation in Syria, then there are economic migrants, elbowing their way to the front of the queue, and there are pleasure seekers, young men out for what they can get and as much fun on the way.

Why do you think, that countries who previously opened their arms to refugees are now drastically changing their policies?

There is a suspected illegal immigrant posting now in chat about birth certificates, looks like they have stolen someone's identity, this is the cost of those elbowing.

Sarah, I don't think me not having a spare room is a barrier to the 3000 children coming to the UK.

Maybe because the authorities in France have abandoned them and done nothing tó help them, save

are you claiming that France has done nothing for any refugees, that its take none in?

or are they just not doing much to help the ones who do not want to claim asylum in France?

i don't think me not having a spare room is a barrier to the 3000 children coming to the UK

How many spare rooms are there in the UK?

Roughly?

How do you know that?

And are you not a titchy bit astonished that there should now be spare rooms available, staffed by trained trauma specialists where, until recently, there were none?

Or do those with spare rooms appoint themselves as judges of the deserving over and above the professionals who tell us of the dearth of spare rooms?

And as European Spare Room Monitor, can you explain why those spare rooms MUST be in the UK and not in any of the countries between here and Greece?

I'm in the south east of England and have had children placed with me regularly from London and up to a two hour drive away because there aren't carers who can take teenage foster children. I can't see how 3000 children can logistically be accommodated. Children's homes are closing. There is a huge wait for secure therapeutic placements. I had a foster child wait for over a year to see CAMHS who had been abused. We have children taken into care from Europe as well now. We just don't have the capacity.