Number of child refugees brought to UK through resettlement scheme plummets by 30%, figures show

Ministers accused of ‘turning their backs’ on vulnerable child refugees

A child cries as a dinghy with 54 Afghan refugees lands ashore the Greek island of Lesbos (Getty)

The number of child refugees brought to the UK through the government’s resettlement scheme plummeted by 30 per cent last year.

Ministers have now been accused of “turning their backs” on vulnerable minors facing persecution overseas.

Some 278 youngsters were resettled under the Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement (VCR) scheme last year, analysis of official figures shows, down from 395 in 2018. Just 17 minors were granted protection in the last three months of 2019.

Meanwhile, thousands of migrants are searching for ways to cross into Europe after Turkey announced it would no longer stop refugees from reaching the continent, prompting Greece to tighten its sea and land borders.

A child was killed on Monday when the boat they were aboard capsized off the island of Lesbos, underscoring the dangers faced by those attempting to make the passage west from Turkey.

The UK government introduced the VCR scheme in 2016. It committed to resettling up to 3,000 vulnerable children and their families — if they had relatives – from the Middle East and North Africa by 2020.

The scheme has so far resettled 1,747 people, and the annual number of individuals resettled has fallen from 688 in 2018 to 489 last year, according to the latest immigration statistics, published last week.

This has fuelled concerns about the UK’s efforts to protect child refugees, particularly after Conservative MPs voted down a Lords amendment to Boris Johnson’s Brexit legislation that would have guaranteed family reunion rights for unaccompanied child refugees after EU withdrawal.

Christine Jardine MP, home affairs spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, accused the Conservatives of “turning their backs” on child refugees, adding: “Their failure to live up to their own commitments is shameful.

“The appalling scenes we are seeing in the Mediterranean, including the tragic death of a child refugee just yesterday, remind us of the need to do all we can to protect children who’ve been forced to flee their homes and separated from their families.”

Judith Dennis, policy manager at the Refugee Council, said ministers should make “every effort” to fulfil targets on the children’s scheme – as it has been able to do in other areas of resettlement. This means we must see a “strong increase” in numbers this year, she said.

“We are yet to see the government show the true leadership the UK has done in the past and commit to significant resettlement beyond 2021,” she said. “Until they do this, agencies like ours who help deliver this support are simply are unable to make the best use of our resources, nor properly plan for the refugees of tomorrow.”

In June 2019, the Home Office announced that from 2020, a new resettlement scheme would be introduced, bringing the VCR scheme, the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement (VPR) scheme and the Gateway Protection Programme into a single programme.

A Home Office spokesperson said in addition to the VCR resettlements, more than 19,350 refugees have been welcomed in under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme, around half of whom were children.

They added: “We will continue our commitment to supporting refugees under a new global scheme set to start in 2020, giving those fleeing conflict and persecution the opportunity to build a new life in the UK.”