MORAY’S MP IS leading the charge over the UK Government’s commitment to child refugees with a request for a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss the issue.
In a letter sent on behalf of all SNP MPs at Westminster, Angus Robertson is calling on Theresa May to reverse what he insists is the “shameful decision” to stop receiving unaccompanied refugee children from Europe.
It is expected that pressure will grow on the PM this week when there is a special Home Affairs Select Committee examining the ‘Dubs Scheme’, which regulates the passage of unaccompanied refugee children, and the UK Government decision to withdraw from that at the end of March.
The SNP has called for greater refugee resettlement since the start of the crisis, and wants the UK government to continue the Dubs scheme to receive at least 3000 of the estimated 90,000 unaccompanied child refugees in Europe.
While Moray was quick to accept war refugees families who are now integrating into the local community, the region already has much-publicised issues of its own in caring for children and so is unlikely to be in a position to accept unaccompanied child refugees without significant help.
However, Mr Robertson is insisting that as a whole the UK should be doing a great deal more than they are. He said: “The Prime Minister cannot continue to remain silent in the face of growing pressure from the public and parliament to reverse this shameful decision.
“We are in the midst of the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War – it will not just go away, and the UK government must not shirk its moral responsibility to receive our fair share of unaccompanied child refugees.
“These are some of the most vulnerable children in the world – we can and must do more to protect them.
“Ministers have been far too slow and reluctant to act throughout the refugee crisis. The relatively weak commitments that they have made must now be kept – and instead of closing down key routes to sanctuary the UK government should be stepping up its resettlement efforts.
“Theresa May must now show some moral and political leadership by immediately scrapping plans to end the Dubs Scheme and by stepping up the UK government’s refugee resettlement efforts.”