OTLEY’S MP has vowed to support continuing efforts to protect child refugees.
A House of Lords amendment to the Government’s Brexit bill would have restored a clause that guaranteed the rights of refugee children to join their families in the UK.
The legislation for unaccompanied child refugees was actually included in both Theresa May and Boris Johnson’s EU Withdrawal Agreement Bills - but removed after the Government’s decisive General Election victory in December.
The House of Lords supported Lord Alf Dubs’ proposal to restore the guarantee but that amendment, plus four others, was overturned in the House of Commons last week.
MP Alex Sobel (Lab, Leeds North West) said: “This is an issue that I care deeply about both as a Parliamentarian and a descendant of refugees.
“I am disappointed that the Government have overturned the House of Lords amendment which would have restored the right of unaccompanied child refugees to be reunited with their families in the UK. I hope Lord Dubs keeps going with his attempts to protect the rights of child refugees, of which naturally, I will be fully supportive.”
The Government insists it remains committed to protecting the rights of child refugees as set out in the amendment but claims there was ‘no need’ to specifically mention that in the withdrawal agreement.
Lord Dubs is a Prague-born peer who was saved as a child refugee from the Nazis via the Kindertransport, a coordinated rescue effort that took place in the months before the outbreak of World War Two.
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