Unlimited Digital Access / Get £25 off your Annual Digital Subscription! Use code 25OFF
GET STARTEDMore on KentOnline
Unlimited Digital Access / Get £25 off your Annual Digital Subscription! Use code 25OFF
GET STARTEDMore on KentOnline
Migrant children need to be reunited with their families, says a support group.
The Anglo-French People Not Walls was referring to people sleeping rough in northern France, trying to cross the Channel to reach Britain.
It spoke out in a week that a total 142 migrants, or suspected ones, reached Britain, or tried to, in five days.
It also discussed children fleeing war just before Holocaust Memorial Day on Monday.
The group wants called for the legal recognition of the right of children to be reunited with their families as an urgent and basic human right.
Barbara Kentish, interim co-ordinator, said, "'At a time when millions of children are being deprived of any hope and losing their childhood we, alongside other NGOs (non-government organisations), make one last appeal for the government to pass legislation which enshrines the rights of children seeking to be reunited with their families as was agreed for inclusion in the earlier EU Withdrawal Bill.
" If we are a humane and compassionate society, there is simply no alternative.
"Holocaust Memorial Day - recalled a time when Britain agreed to rescue children who otherwise would have perished.
" Let's see the same generosity of spirit at a time when the world is ravaged by war and genocide."
People Not Walls particularly pointed out the Syrian conflict, in its ninth year with more than 4 million children aged under 10 having never known peace.
It says half of them are displaced from their homes and schools by conflict.
The group spoke out after a five-day period when a total 82 migrants on small boats arrived on the British side of the Channel and another 60 were stopped by the French authorities and returned to France.
The biggest arrival was on Saturday, when 28 people in one small boat had to be helped by Border Force.
They were brought to Dover for medical checks and interview. Three claimed to be minors.
On Tuesday last week the new Dover MP Natalie Elphicke commented on Facebook: "A fresh approach to small boat crossings is needed - one where anyone rescued in the Channel is returned to the safety of France.
"There is no compassion in encouraging people who are already safe on land to make these dangerous journeys in overcrowded small boats."
The UK formally leaves the European Union, after 47 years, at 11pm today.
