Notwithstanding pleas from charity organisations, Priti Patel, Britain’s home secretary, has refused to admit refugees already accepted to join family members in the UK
Unaccompanied minors awaiting transportation from overcrowded refugee camps on the Greek islands are caught up in what has been predicted to be a humanitarian catastrophe. The camps are reportedly six times over capacity and there are fears that a coronavirus outbreak could trigger a public health emergency.
The European parliament’s civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee recently urged the evacuation of 42,000 people from the islands as “an urgent preventive” measure, and several charities have asked EU countries to help reduce the number of detainees in the Greek island camps ahead of a possible Covid-19 outbreak as access to healthcare is limited.
One particular request from medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières asking that the number of child refugees admitted to the UK be significantly increased and their evacuation deemed urgent, received no response from the home secretary. On March 31, the Foreign Office provided a standard response to the organisation to the effect that the UK would continue to support the implementation of the EU-Turkey deal which, for the past four years, has aimed to prevent asylum seekers from travelling to Europe. The response contrasted unfavourably with that of a number of other EU countries including Germany, France, Luxembourg, Finland, Belgium, and Bulgaria who have volunteered to help transfer 2,000 children from the islands.
Children’s charities in the UK have stated that the response was tantamount to a containment policy and was in contravention of the EU’s responsibilities towards refugees. One such charity, Safe Passage, sent the Home Office a list of unaccompanied children and vulnerable adult refugees who have been legally accepted for transfer to join family in the UK in an attempt to compel the government to take action during what they consider to be a small window of opportunity for evacuation.
