Agreement made with French authorities to review new information from children formerly resident in Calais camp
The Guardian reported yesterday that the Home Office has agreed to review asylum applications from child refugees from the former refugee and migrant camp in the French port of Calais.
Image credit: WikipediaCases of children with direct family links to UK will be reconsidered, the Guardian says.
The move comes after several child refugees returned to the site of the former camp in Calais in a renewed effort to cross to the UK.
A Home Office spokeswoman was quoted as saying: "The Calais operation has now concluded. All children present in the centres throughout France when Home Office teams visited were assessed against the family reunification criteria in the Dublin regulation and the published guidance for section 67 of the Immigration Act. Children in France may be eligible to be transferred to the UK where they have a family link as set out in the Dublin regulation.
"We have agreed with the French authorities that we will review any new information from children formerly resident in the Calais camp to assess whether it would change our determination of their eligibility under the Dublin regulation, to encourage an application."
The Government faced harsh criticism earlier this month after it said it had decided it would end the "Dubs amendment" scheme to let unaccompanied migrant children in to the UK.
By the time the scheme ends in March, just 350 children would have been resettled in the UK compared to the 3,000 wanted by campaigners and Lord Dubs, himself a former child refugee.
BBC News quoted Home Secretary Amber Rudd as telling the Commons: "I am clear that when working with my French counterparts they do not want us to indefinitely continue to accept children under the Dubs amendment because they specify, and I agree with them, that it acts as a draw. It acts as a pull. It encourages the people traffickers."
Political opposition and religious figures criticised the decision, with Lord Dubs saying: "I believe in arbitrarily closing down the scheme, without any good reason for doing so, the Government is in breach of its own commitments."
The Guardian reported on 10 February that the High Court is set to hear a legal challenge over the end of Dubs scheme in May.
The legal challenge has been brought by the charity Help Refugees.
Rosa Curling of Help Refugees representatives Leigh Day told the Guardian: "Our legal challenge holds the government to account on this critical issue of how many unaccompanied refugee children will be relocated to the UK and supported here. We believe the process by which the number has been reached is unlawful."