One year ago, on 20 August 2015, Theresa May, on behalf of the UK government, and Bernard Cazeneuve, for the French government, signed a joint declaration promising protection of the most vulnerable in the camp in Calais and a joint safeguarding programme. This programme completely failed. By March, 129 children were unaccounted for in a monthly census. No alternative accommodation had been provided; no needs assessments made; no systems put in place to monitor or provide safeguarding; and no official registration system set up for the children, who now number 865, of whom 675 are without any family.
There are 178 children with the right to be reunited with families in the UK under the three-year-old EU Dublin III Regulation to which the UK is a signatory. Our government has transferred fewer than 50. The Immigration Act passed in May provides that the secretary of state must, as soon as possible, make arrangements to relocate to the UK and support a specified number of unaccompanied refugee children from other countries in Europe. Not one has yet been relocated from Calais. Over these last 12 months the children of Calais have continued, and still continue, to suffer extreme deprivation, facing extreme risks of abuse, trafficking, exploitation and violence, and some have died trying to reach the sanctuary of the UK.
Richard Annandale
Calais Refugee Solidarity, Bristol
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