The number of refugee children being accepted in the UK has fallen from 3,000 to 350 following a recent decision on behalf of the UK government to halt the Dubs Scheme.
During yesterday's Brexit debate, the Home Office announced the scheme's early closure, arguing the programme could “incentivise” children to travel to Europe.
Yvette Cooper, Labour’s refugee task force spokesperson, said this morning in Parliament: "Once those 350 children are here, that’s it, it is closed. Where does it say in the Hansard debate that I have here from our debates in the Dubs amendment that we will only help lone child refugees for less than six months.
Where does it say that instead of the 3,000 that Parliament debated we will only help a tenth of that number?"
“Where does it say that when we get the chance we will somehow turn our backs once again. It doesn’t because we didn’t say that at the time. The Home Secretary knows what she is doing is shameful,” she added.
Amber Rudd MP and home secretary continued to claim "the scheme is not closed."
Back to the Jungle
In light of the construction of "the great wall of Calais," all refugee children refused entry to the UK will be sent back to the jungle camp, infamous for its dangerous conditions.
With temperatures hitting below freezing in the winter, there has been many cases of unaccompanied minors going missing, and starving or freezing to death.
Reports have also claimed the camp is infested with rats and contaminated with faeces, causing the residents to contract deadly diseases such as tuberculous.
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said: “The worst thing about this Government’s failure to step up to the totality of the refugee crisis is the children.
“How does she [Rudd] live with herself leaving thousands of children, subject to disease, people trafficking, squalor and hopelessness?”
What is the Dubs Amendment?
The Amendment was initiated by Lord Dubs, a former holocaust survivor, who pushed for the government to accept more child refugees and asylum seekers under the age of 15, from war-torn countries such as Syria and Afghanistan.
Despite promising to enforce the law, the government have reportedly scrapped the scheme.
Lord Dubs said he will challenge the "bitterly disappointing" termination of his amendment against the UK's immigration act.
Many MP's have named and shamed the decision as "letting the country down by refusing to help children fleeing war and genocide."
