Petition: 'Theresa May: Do not abandon the Dubs Scheme for refugee children'

[IlonaM]

Theresa May: Do not abandon the Dubs Scheme for refugee children

Theresa May has decided to shut down the Dubs Scheme - a promise by the Government to bring the most vulnerable refugee children to safety in the UK.

Our country has a proud tradition of welcoming those most in need. We stepped up to rescue 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi persecution.

I myself arrived in the UK by the Kindertransport.

Now more than ever we must stand by our values.

Thousands of children we promised to help are still in danger.

Britain is better than this. Sign to keep the Dubs Scheme alive.

Yours,

Lord Alf Dubs

Find out more and sign the petition here: http://www.citizensuk.org/dubs_petition

Please spread the word

[jaywalker]

I will of course sign this.

It seems to me we should realise, however, that the government just doesn't care. I really do look forward to hearing the counter-arguments. Dark days for the UK, and elsewhere.

[IlonaM]

I think we have to hold the Government to account.

This is Liberty's view:

'In the noise of yesterday?s Brexit vote, you may have missed the Government quietly closing the door on thousands of lone child refugees in Europe.

It was just eight months ago that the Government committed to the Dubs scheme, pledging to provide a safe haven for vulnerable children who had escaped war-torn countries only to be trapped in violent and unhygienic refugee camps. By working in coordination with local councils, these children would be resettled in the UK.

Through Liberty and Help Refugees?s campaign, we saw hundreds of councillors ? from Cornwall to The Highlands, Norwich to Belfast ? sign our statement of support. Each pledged to welcome refugee children if central government provided the essential funds necessary to settle them in the community.

Yet despite this widespread display of local support, the Government has decided that only 350 children will be brought to the UK.

We are deeply disappointed by this shamefully low number and the shirking of responsibility by our Government.

Our campaign partners Help Refugees are in the process of taking the Government to court over the implementation of the Dubs scheme and the Government?s failure to properly consult local authorities.

The charity Citizens UK have launched a petition asking Theresa May not to abandon the Dubs Scheme. Please sign it and spread the word.

In the face of an ever-growing crisis and increasing hostility to refugees across the Atlantic, Liberty will continue to call for our government to play its part in easing the suffering of children forced to flee their homes.

Thank you for your support.

Larry

Larry Holmes

Head of Campaigns and Strategy'

[Earl Aelfheah]

It's an absolute disgrace and actually pretty dangerous seeing as these vulnerable children are at real risk of radicalisation if left to 'disapear'.

[IlonaM]

Update from Citizens UK campaign:

'Yesterday, MPs from all parties stepped up to challenge Theresa May?s decision and say that more must be done. There is a real chance she will move on this.

You?ll wake up to hear that Barbara Winton, has written to Theresa May asking her to keep the scheme open. You can read it below.

I know you?ll join Barbara and me in proclaiming: ?Every single child?s life is worth every single thing we can give.?

Please share Barbra?s letter.

Britain is better than this.

Rabbi Janet

---

Dear Prime Minister,

Donald Trump?s refugee ban echoes the terrible failures of the human spirit that, on the eve of the Second World War, saw country after country close its borders to Jewish refugees in urgent need of protection.

My father Sir Nicholas Winton knew that each and every one of us share in a responsibility to our fellow men and women, a responsibility to offer sanctuary those fleeing persecution. ?If it?s not impossible? he used to say, then surely something could and something must be done. His efforts saw 669 children rescued, a part of the Kindertransport programme that saved 10,000 lives.

Lord Alf Dubs, who brought an amendment last year providing for unaccompanied refugee children in Europe to once again be brought to safety in Britain, was himself one of those 669.

The government has now announced the total figure of children to be helped through Alf?s amendment and, sadly, has announced a close to the programme. Barely 200 children have been helped to date and Citizens UK?s Safe Passage Project and Help Refugees teams are coping with the fallout in Greece and Italy following the news that the government will only commit to helping 150 more.

Every single child?s life is worth every single thing we can give. That the country has taken any of these children show my father?s spirit lives on.

As my father's MP I know he deeply valued the relationship he had with you towards the end of his life, and at his memorial you very generously described him as "an enduring example of the difference that good people can make even in the darkest of times? and said ?I hope that his life will serve as an inspiration for us all?and encourage us to do the right thing?.

As the world once again teeters on the edge of dark times, I ask you to remember those words.

Yours sincerely

Barbara Winton

-=-=-

CITIZENS UK ? 112 Cavell St, London E1 2JA, United Kingdom '

[uncleglen]

I saw this some months ago so I will not be signing the petition (as well as the number I have come across in school are obviously men rather than schoolboys but it is hushed up)

http://news.sky.com/story/kids-in-care-moved-away-after-refugee-influx-10144373

[Burbage]

uncleglen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I saw this some months ago so I will not be

> signing the petition (as well as the number I have

> come across in school are obviously men rather

> than schoolboys but it is hushed up)

> http://news.sky.com/story/kids-in-care-moved-away-

> after-refugee-influx-10144373

It's effectively arguing that, to save Whitehall the trouble of organising it properly, Parliament should be allowed to renege on our promises to give some children sanctuary, letting then sleep outdoors and prostitite themselves - a strategy that would have the benefit of discouraging others.

I'm not a philosopher, so I can't pinpoint exactly where the ethical sticking-point is in all that. But I do know what a promise looks like, how a democracy is supposed to work and what the word 'sanctuary' means. It was parliament, not local authorities, that voted for the Dubs amendment, and so national government should be responsible for funding and resourcing it properly. If government can break promises at will, and Whitehall can so easily outsource its work to local authorities without being held to account, what exactly is the point of voting, paying taxes or even pretending to be civilised?

We can only hope that, at a time when politicians and civil servants alike have particularly strong reasons for giving the impression that they're not entirely impotent and exclusively interested in the betterment of their personal finances, they might be persuaded to think again about abandoning children to a degrading, prospectless future. Especially given they've already done that once this month.

[IlonaM]

Posted by Dana Airapetjana 0pc on February 09, 2017

Source: http://www.citizensuk.org/dubs_downing_action?utm_campaign=dubs_ldn_event&utm_medium=email&utm_source=citizens

Theresa May has decided to shut down the Dubs Scheme - a promise by the Government to bring the most vulnerable refugee children to safety in the UK.

Our country has a proud tradition of welcoming those most in need. We stepped up to rescue 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi persecution.

Lord Alf Dubs himself arrived in the UK by the Kindertransport.

Now more than ever we must stand by our values.

Thousands of children we promised to help are still in danger.

Please join Alf Dubs and others on Saturday to oppose the ending of this safe passage to sanctuary!

WHEN

February 11, 2017 at 12pm - 12:30pm

WHERE

Whitehall, opposite Downing Street

London SW1A 2AA

United Kingdom

Google map and directions

CONTACT

Beth Gardiner-Smith

[jaywalker]

I loved the way that the Government's bad faith came undone on Newsnight. 'We cannot take them because it is unsafe for them given that local authorities have no capacity'. Speaker after speaker relayed that local authorities do have space (and indeed that the government had not asked them about it).

And if there truly had been no spaces for them, was it not then the responsibility of central government to provide them?

Truly, I think Sartre's category tells us all we need to know here.

Unclegen, your post is so very sad: you seem unable to distinguish a general principle from an exception (my god, were they wearing beards?), you see the whole thing as a conspiracy ("hushed up") and your pitifully reactionary disposition is barely disguised.

[IlonaM]

Update on the petition delivered today to Downing Street:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/11/theresa-may-under-increasing-pressure-to-restart-dubs-scheme

[tiddles]

I think we have to realise that most govts (esp the current incumbents)

really do not care about these children, or people fleeing for their lives.

These are the same govts who will have applauded the likes of sir Nicholas winton

But will happily turn their backs on real and desperate need. We seem to be sinking

in a quagmire of self serving selfish daily mail politics - me me me

And stuff you. Enough time has evolved since the second war for the lessons learnt to be

Forgotten. The shouty say what they want they want to hear, whether it be Truth or not seems

To be winning over reason, debate and decency. Actually that last word sums it up for me.

And on another note, why the heck is that piers Morgan chap allowed on a tv news programme?

Apologies for weird Capitalsation as I am doing this on my phone.

[KidKruger]

Isn't this ultimately a function of the 'no more brown people' Brexit outcome ?

That's basically what drove the OUT vote.

Why would any exceptions be expected from such a nasty and racist intention.

Whole thing is sickening.

[Earl Aelfheah]

You can't blame government. They're responding to what the people want. Sadly, for many that's turning our back on those in need, driven by fear and prejudice. Pick up a copy of the Mail, or the Express, or the Sun and it's pretty clear what kind of country we really are. It's depressing and ultimately I think we're going to pay the price. So many talented people, successful businesses and industries will end up moving to places which are more open, outward looking and confident. I think that post Brexit and without a major shift in culture Britain is going to slowly decline. I hope I'm wrong, but the mean, little Britain mindset is destructive and suffocating. I love London, but have (like many others I'm sure), been wondering whether it might not be time for a move. It's a great, world class city but it's attached to a largely second rate, backward looking country.

[jaywalker]

Well said Rahrahrah, Tiddles and Kidkruger. Politicians are running scared of all this.

For me, they do have leadership responsibility (though I know many think to insist on this is paternalistic or anti-democratic). If you accept political office you have both statutory and ethical responsibilities that must do more than reflect the apparent will of the people (i.e. the rabid outpourings of the disgraceful national press) as if you were some automaton.

Otherwise 'democracy' is reduced to its first form (votes by a public show of hands) but without the Greek constraint that you had to actually meet and look people in the eye to vote in city states that were small enough for this to act as a check - as how you voted would be known by your neighbours - (and, when we talk about 'pure democracy' we should always remember, only if you were male and not a slave etc). 'Democracy' as reflected will of a populist press is not at all the same thing. Rather, representative government had evolved as an autonomous power (against the monarchy, judiciary and the press, both of the latter at least in turn rightly against them): but now the estates are simply collapsing into one thing. Everytime someone uses the word 'democracy' they are furthering this.

That this government is actually amplifying those press outpourings for naked political advantage (see forthcoming by-elections) is unspeakable.

[BrandNewGuy]

KidKruger Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Isn't this ultimately a function of the 'no more

> brown people' Brexit outcome ?

> That's basically what drove the OUT vote.

> Why would any exceptions be expected from such a

> nasty and racist intention.

> Whole thing is sickening.

A January poll suggests a far lower concern over immigration than has been suggested.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/21/immigration-lowest-priority-young-people-brexit-poll

The Guardian saw fit to highlight the young people / old people divide, but admits "Reducing immigration scored far higher among the over-55 age group (7.63) though even among these voters it was still not seen as important as 12 other issues." Which included protecting human rights, preventing hate crime, ensuring public services are well funded, reducing poverty...

I certainly wouldn't want to paint a rosy post-referendum picture of the problems we face and the backtracking on the Dubs Scheme is shameful, but the 'hateful little grey island' meme is getting a little tiresome.

[KidKruger]

BNG it's a horrible meme I agree.

Guardian I'm sure has loads of stats to refer to.

It doesn't feel like that amongst the leave voters I know and see on media (wanting a reduction in hate, really ?)

[jaywalker]

BNG you are no doubt right about the majority of Leave voters (although there are reliability issues in terms of what people say when interviewed and what they say when they know they are off the record - here my experience is the same as KidKruger's I fear).

However, the popular press and their stupid headlines, together with some leave voters (not a majority, but enough to be salient even on the streets of ED) who cause an enormous amount of distress both in public (spitting on people is the least of it) and in what they take to be the anonymity of internet forums such as the BBC News website, express hate enough for you not to grow indifferent to it. My neighbour (who was born in a foreign country) tells me she has been repeatedly abused on the street. I only have to scan the headlines in the press or posts on the internet to realise this is a sick country. Reducing this to a 'tiresome meme' is a little optimistic, even if we are all fatigued by it.

[BrandNewGuy]

I suspect you're being too kind to the media ? all that aggressive behaviour is catnip to them and their audiences. I have no illusions about the problems this country faces ? and the extent to which airing unpleasant and downright ugly views has increased ? but I remain unconvinced that we are being or are about to be overrun by violent racists. Perhaps Emma Thompson, though, still feels that we are "a cake-filled misery-laden grey old island".

[Charles Martel]

uncleglen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I saw this some months ago so I will not be

> signing the petition (as well as the number I have

> come across in school are obviously men rather

> than schoolboys but it is hushed up)

It was not ?hushed up?. It was front page news.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2016175/charity-falsely-claims-38-year-old-child-migrant-from-calais-jungle-is-actually-an-adult-interpreter/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3858392/First-child-migrants-proved-ADULT-fingerprints-appeared-database-used-check-criminals-entering-Britain.html

Nobody who has followed what has gone on in other countries like Sweden or Germany with so called ?unaccompanied minors? would have been surprised by the appearance of these man-children. It was only a surprise to those who only follow the BBC lie machine with its pictures of lovely little children playing in the mud. I noticed these pictures were back on the BBC news again last week. LOL. More propaganda from the blatantly biased corporation.

Grown men pretend to be under 18 to get the preferential treatment extended to children in the asylum system. These men have been trafficked across Europe by organized criminal people smuggling networks. If we want to help genuine refugee children then we should focus on the UN and other refugee camps in the mid-east region, as we have done before.

Children already in Europe are obviously the responsibility of the European nation they are in. None of these European nations is having a holocaust, are they? The Dubs amendment, no matter how well meant was always based on flawed logic. It does not matter whether we take 300, 3000 or 300,000. There will always more who want to come and traffickers who will bring them.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/15/europe/freedom-project-misery-trail-children/

A line has to be drawn. Why should we take the ones who have been trafficked rather than 300,000 taken at random from the 65 million refugees around the world? If this line is not drawn by normal politicians, then eventually we will end up like France with its failed open border policy. Their next election seems to be shaping up to be a choice between Fascism now or Sharia law later.

Brexit came about because of the Euroscepticism in the Conservative party which started in the mid 1980s. It never had anything to do with immigration as such. It also never had anything to do with ?the people?. The eurosceptics were concerned with British sovereignty being lost to a federal EU. Simply power being lost by the traditional British political elite to a new European elite based in Brussels. The European elite have been shown to be grotesquely incompetent, hence the growth in euroscepticism finally leading to the brexit vote. This was the referendum that really should have been held before the Maastricht treaty was ratified by the UK.

Control of immigration is a normal part of being a sovereign state. Brexit obviously has nothing to do with wanting ?no more brown people? as there are none in Poland, Hungary etc.

[titch juicy]

rahrahrah Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> You can't blame government. They're responding to

> what the people want. Sadly, for many that's

> turning our back on those in need, driven by fear

> and prejudice. Pick up a copy of the Mail, or the

> Express, or the Sun and it's pretty clear what

> kind of country we really are. It's depressing and

> ultimately I think we're going to pay the price.

> So many talented people, successful businesses and

> industries will end up moving to places which are

> more open, outward looking and confident. I think

> that post Brexit and without a major shift in

> culture Britain is going to slowly decline. I hope

> I'm wrong, but the mean, little Britain mindset is

> destructive and suffocating. I love London, but

> have (like many others I'm sure), been wondering

> whether it might not be time for a move. It's a

> great, world class city but it's attached to a

> largely second rate, backward looking country.

You've taken the thoughts right out of my head.

I will be moving to Germany some time later this year.

[????]

Is that Germany where they've just banned the Burka?

[titch juicy]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Is that Germany where they've just banned the

> Burka?

Except that they haven't.

Merkel has called for it as part of an election pledge. Even if she does get another term, other than this she's very much a small 'c' conservative and the main opposition party, a very well organised party currently ahead in the polls is

left wing.

[IlonaM]

Update from Lord Dubs and launch of the Alf Dubs Children's Fund

'We came together to write and call our MPs ? to ask them to vote on a new amendment that could give hope to the most vulnerable refugee children.

But instead of pushing the door open, it?s just been shut to thousands of children across Europe who will spend tonight alone and in some of the worst conditions I?ve seen.

I?m devastated. The Britain I know is better than this.

The Britain I know is made of heroes like Sir Nicholas Winton, who saved 669 children virtually single handed on the eve of the Second World War. I was one of them.

That?s why today I am asking you to support the Alf Dubs Children?s Fund - https://alf-dubs-childrens-fund.fundraise.tech/one-off/?utm_campaign=dubsscheme&utm_medium=email&tags=dubslaunchdonor

Together with Citizens UK?s Safe Passage, this Fund will seek out safe and legal routes for vulnerable children to find refuge in the UK.

Already we have staff on the ground in Greece, Italy and France, working with the tens of thousands of children stranded there.

Theresa May?s government may have failed these children ? but we won?t give up.

You are the Britain that I believe in. An open, welcoming and just country.

Thank you for every letter, phone call and action you?ve taken.

Each one makes a difference. It tilts the scales of justice towards fairness and compassion.

I?m asking you today to donate and help tilt those scales a little further.

Together we can make the difference.

Together we are powerful.

Lord Alf Dubs'

Refugee Welcome - Citizens UK

http://citizens.nationbuilder.com/

-=-=-

CITIZENS UK ? 112 Cavell St, London E1 2JA, United Kingdom

[Earl Aelfheah]

Parliament made a commitment, they should honour it.

[jaywalker]

They do not care.

Really, we have to come to terms with this (not the same as accepting it). On this monstrous issue, but also on Brexit, on immigration, today on manifesto promises. They do not care. Ultimately, policies are just a means to power: that is the attraction for these people. They are, as Foucault warned, enamoured of it.