Heidi Allen MP: 'We should be grabbing child refugees out of camps and bringing them here'
Agnes Chambre
| PoliticsHome
Conservative MP Heidi Allen made an impassioned speech to a Unicef and Conservative Home reception about the need to do more for child refugees.
Addressing the reception audience Heidi Allen said when she became an MP there were a number of things on her list that she wanted to change, but the refugee situation was not one of them – until she saw the photo of Aylan Kurdi washed up on the beach.
She travelled to Lesbos, where she saw people, for the first time, queue for basic necessities such as food and toilets. Although the Greek economy was “on its knees”, she saw people scrabble together bits of food to help these refugees.
Seeing all of this made her angry.
“I know the Government has money,” she told the audience at the Unicef reception. The South Cambridgeshire MP explained that although there were many Britons giving out food and supplies, the Government was not there.
“There was not a single Home Office official. I find this unacceptable.”
Upon her return, she made it her mission to understand why the UK was not helping and to inform ministers they were not doing enough.
“It was not a case of Yes Minister, it was a case of No Minister. What you have in your brief is not what is happening.”
Although, she says Lesbos was “very upsetting”, there was at least a small sense of relief and family comfort in the camps. Calais stood in stark contrast, said Ms Allen, with an over whelming sense of “despair”, coupled with the constant threat of human trafficking.
“Children disappear for a reason and they are not going to a happy place,” she told the reception.
After the Dubs Amendment went through, Ms Allen said she was “full of hope”, but still does not believe that the Government is doing enough.
“We have a legal and moral obligation. We should go grabbing children and pulling them out and until we do that, I will not stop. Because it is that easy and I will not accept paperwork as a reason.”
Another politician who visited the Calais camps this year and was speaking at the event was Unicef board member Baroness Anne Jenkin. Her speech took a slight different tack from Ms Allen’s. She wanted Britons to look at see the “half glass full” of what is going on in the world. Ms Jenkin urged the audience to focus on what is going wrong instead of going right.
“The golden age is now.”
“It is easy to feel overwhelmed, impotent, angry, guilty even when thinking about the dreadful lives of child refugees.” But she said she wanted to take a moment to look at how far the world had come in improving children’s lives in many regards – such as illiteracy, polio, child labour, and infant mortality.
Despite all the improvements, said Baroness Jenkins, only 5% of citizens believe the world is getting richer.
“As the world becomes more prosperous and we deal better with poverty, we become less tolerant of it, it’s a paradox, as we all get richer we start to care more, quite rightly, about the problems we can now solve. And how lucky we are to live in the country…a generous country on aid.”
“But I for one am very happy about the difference we are making to the poorest people around the world.”
Unicef UK’s Mike Penrose argued that the UK has a chance to be a trendsetter for policy areas around the world, on issues like aid and domestic issues including how to act with regards to child refugees.
"For Unicef worldwide, the UK really matters, it is a critically important country. It plays a pinnacle role in bodies like the UN Security Council. It is famed for its practical pragmatism, its ability to influence policy and change global perspectives. It is the first leading economy to have enshrined 0.7% towards aid and development in law and that's something we should be hugely proud of."
He fully supported Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's call for individuals and politicians to be louder about refugees.
Mr Penrose also backed the ten Conservative MPs who had written to Home Secretary Amber Rudd to help the children in Calais who have the right to residence in the UK and give them safe passage here immediately.
He said he believes the UK has a chance to reassert its "global compass".
"It can be trendsetter for principle and practical and pragmatic policy in relation to aid development and domestic policy for the most vulnerable children, for every child in danger."
This article is sponsored by Unicef UK
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