UK votes against accepting 3,000 child refugees

MPs voted against the proposals by 294 to 276 on Monday after the Home Office persuaded most potential Tory rebels that it was doing enough to help child refugees in Syria and neighbouring countries.

The amendment to the immigration bill would have forced the government to accept 3,000 unaccompanied refugee minors, mostly from Syria, who have made their way to mainland Europe.

It originated in the House of Lords after being introduced by Alf Dubs, a Labour peer who was a beneficiary of the Kindertransport, the government-backed programme that took child refugees from Germany in the run-up to the second world war.

Following the vote, Labour vowed to continue its efforts to make the government change its mind, tabling a new amendment in the House of Lords asking it to accept a specified number of child refugees from Europe after consultation with local councils.

The Home Office successfully saw off the Dubs amendment in the Commons after arguing it would act as an incentive for refugees to make the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to Europe.

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James Brokenshire, a Home Office minister, said the government could not support a policy that would "inadvertently create a situation in which families see an advantage in sending children alone ahead and in the hands of traffickers, putting their lives at risk by attempting treacherous sea crossings to Europe which would be the worst of all outcomes”.

The amendment was backed by Labour, the SNP and Liberal Democrats.

Keir Starmer, a shadow Home Office minister, said "history would judge” MPs for voting against the plan, saying it was the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since the second world war.

"It is the challenge of our times and whether we rise to it or not will be the measure of us,” Starmer said. "We have the clear evidence of thousands of vulnerable children and we now need to act. This is the moment to do something about it, by voting with us this evening.”

Only a handful of Conservative MPs voted in favour of accepting the child refugees. One of them, Tania Mathias, said accepting children at risk of harm in Europe was the "right thing to do”.

The vote effectively kills off the original Dubs amendment because ministers argued it had cost implications and therefore should be exempt from returning to the House of Lords, where it could have been reinstated.

John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, said he would write to parliament’s procedure committee asking for a review of the way the financial privilege system works.

Dubs said the invoking of financial privilege in the House of Commons was "shabby parliamentary tactics”, meaning Labour peers have had to table alternative proposals.

Before the debate, he told the Guardian: "My message to Conservative MPs is that in 1938-39, Britain took 10,000 child refugees from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. We were in the lead then and we could take an important step now. The least we can do is say this is a small number and they should be welcome here.”

Yvette Cooper, the chair of Labour’s taskforce on refugees and a former shadow home secretary, had urged Conservative MPs to take the chance to vote for the Dubs proposals.

After the debate, she said: "It is deeply disappointing that the government has rejected the Dubs amendment - albeit with a reduced majority. Thousands of children are sleeping rough in Europe tonight, vulnerable to exploitation and abuse and Britain should not be turning its back. Alf Dubs will keep pressing this issue in the Lords as we must do our bit to help.”

One teenage refugee from Syria, who met Cooper and Dubs for an event outside parliament, said the government was missing the point when it argued that child refugees were better helped in the region.

The minor, who cannot be named, travelled through 17 countries from Syria before reaching Calais and then the UK. Speaking through an interpreter, he said: "Most of the children in the camps do have their families and parents with them but those stranded around Europe and in Calais are very vulnerable because other people could do something to them. That is the fundamental difference between the children in Europe and those in the camps.”

At least 95,000 unaccompanied child refugees are estimated to have applied for asylum in Europe last year. 

Europol, the EU’s criminal intelligence agency, estimated in January that 10,000 children had gone missing after arriving in Europe, warning that many had been taken by criminal gangs.

The Home Office made an announcement last week about providing support for up to 3,000 child refugees from camps in the Middle East, but Save the Children and others said it was merely a repeat of an announcement of aid already promised and failed to offer any help to children already trapped in Europe.

The government’s statement appears to have convinced some Conservatives who had expressed concerns about the issue, however, including backbench MP David Burrowes, who said he would vote with the government on Monday.