Cooper demands Tories come clean over child refugees U-turn

There needs to be transparency on child refugees from the government, as there’s a “big gap” between what they’re saying and the evidence provided by charities in the field, Yvette Cooper has said.

Cooper, the chair of the home affairs select committee, has urged the government to release the latest offers from local authorities to take unaccompanied children, and make clear how many children could be taken in the 2017-18 year. The committee has seen evidence that suggests that as many as 4,000 vulnerable children could be housed.

This comes after the government claimed that the Dubs scheme was acting as “a pull” which encourages people traffickers, and so limited the scheme to include just 350 children. This includes the 200 children who have already arrived in Britain.

Today Cooper’s home affairs select committee released an urgent report on the Dubs scheme ahead of the forthcoming debate on looked after children.

Cooper said: “There is a big gap between what the government has said, and the evidence we heard from local councils and from organisations like Unicef who are working with child refugees. This is too important to get wrong when children’s lives and futures are at risk. That’s why we are making these urgent interim recommendations now.”

“Ministers have said that they need to end the Dubs scheme in order to prevent trafficking, but Save the Children and others have said this will make child trafficking, abuse and exploitation worse. That’s why we have called on the government to consult the expert Independent Anti Slavery Commissioner on his assessment of the risks of more trafficking if the scheme ends—after all it is his job to prevent the kind of abuse and slavery we are all worried about.”

“The government has also said local councils can only take 350 children under the Dubs scheme. But councils told us that with funding in place they could take many more. That’s why we want Ministers to publish all the council offers of help they have had, and to find out how many more children they could take in the next financial year.”

“We will keep taking evidence on this so we can get the full picture. But given that the Commons may be debating amendments on this issue on Tuesday we felt it was important for Parliament to see our interim recommendations.”