Kindertransport 80th anniversary - Our turn now

image Caritas Europa

A fair number of migrants in Calais at the moment are unaccompanied minors, with every right to apply for entry to the UK. It can be shocking to sit with them in Calais, having delivered survival goods, to realise that some will attempt an illegal lorry crossing that very evening.

That is why Westminster Justice and Peace became involved with Safe Passage. This is a campaigning group for young people to arrive legally, partly thanks to the 'Dublin III' Agreement which allows unaccompanied migrant children to join their families legally settled in another country. Moreover, in the UK, a further regulation, known as the Dubs Amendment, allows a number of such children in Europe to come to the UK - even without a family link.

Lord Alf Dubs who introduced it was a child refugee himself, arriving here as part of the Kindertransport in 1938. Safe Passage has succeeded in processing over 1000 young people's entries into Britain (some have rejoined their families here), and also, recently, in securing cross-party agreement that 'Dubs' and 'Dublin III' will form part of the EU Withdrawal Bill. They are now campaigning for local authorities to provide foster care for a specific and symbolic number of unaccompanied minors, that is, 10,000 over 10 years. In 1938 the Kindertransport initiative was successful in arranging admission and resettlement of 10,000 Jewish children, to avoid their deportation to the concentration camps.
Safe Passage has linked up with the Kindertransport commemoration group, which will celebrate the 80th anniversary of that achievement in November this year, to invite people throughout the UK to lobby local councils. They declare that 'If every local authority in the country pledged to take in just 3 children a year over 10 years, we would resettle 10,000 children in 10 years'. At their recent launch in Westminster last month, the leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council pledged to take 100, and Dorset 10. With such generous councils, this target becomes achievable. Safe Passage hopes to present the required number of pledged places to government at the November anniversary event.

Local communities are invited to launch the Kindertransport Anniversary Campaign themselves around 2nd September, to mark the death of Aylan Kurdi. Children's author Michael Morpurgo has written a playlet, to begin the campaign. From September to November we are invited to lobby our local authorities to pledge foster places and, crucially, the means to support these young people. The writer-philanthropist declared,

'This will be an act of communal caring, a recognition of responsibility on behalf of us all. We have been shown the way. Let's do it, for the refugee children, for ourselves as a people'.

Safe Passage clarifies that this target has been reached in consultation with the United Nations , High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which has asked the UK to resettle 10,000 refugees per year after 2020, when the 20,000 Syrian refugees will be settled.

The UK has done it before. All it now requires from us is a welcoming spirit, and some lobbying. One hopes that the UK can step up to the mark, eighty years on, by supporting the Kindertransport Campaign. 'Our Turn Now', as the organisers say.

For information go to www.safepassage.org.uk or email alistair.rooms@safepassage.org.uk for the information pack and details of Michael Morpurgo's playlet.