Spokespeople are available
In response to the fire in Dunkirk, Hayley Cull, Head of Campaigns and Advocacy at Unicef UK said:
“The fire has undoubtedly terrified the children in Dunkirk, especially those alone. This is a distressing reminder that the UK’s rules for helping children reach their families are broken. If the legal process worked, and there was safe passage, children would never have found themselves in such a squalid, dangerous environment.
“We know that traffickers operate in the camp, and without urgent action children could go missing. Priority now must be for the authorities to find emergency accommodation for families, protect all children, and assure unaccompanied children in a family reunion process that this won’t be disrupted.
“We’ve seen this type of violence and danger all too often – in Calais, Greece and now Dunkirk. The Government must fix the family reunion rules so that children can reach the safety of their family without ever having to face such a dangerous journey across Europe.”
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Notes to editors
– Many of the children in the camp were in a legal process for family reunion in the UK, supported by Safe Passage. Their family reunion cases must be facilitated to continue and the bureaucratic delays holding up their cases overcome.
– Unicef has recently interviewed children in Dunkirk (the study will be released next Wednesday) and they have told us that they were so scared along the route (to Dunkirk) by the way they were treated by the authorities that they could not turn to them for information and protection. So they turned to – and were abused by – smugglers and traffickers who were offering information and apparent protection. The children described being assaulted by the police and arbitrarily detained. None of the children we interviewed had been informed of their right to apply to be reunited with their family members legally. The only child who had heard about this had learnt from his father from a BBC report on this issue.
– Our research estimates that there were 100 unaccompanied children in the camp as of last month.
For further information please contact:
Unicef UK Press Office on +44 (0)20 7375 6030 or [email protected]
About Unicef
Unicef is the world’s leading organisation for children, promoting the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere. Unicef UK raises funds to protect children in danger, transform their lives and build a safer world for tomorrow’s children. As a registered charity we raise funds through donations from individuals, organisations and companies and we lobby and campaign to keep children safe. Unicef UK also runs programmes in schools, hospitals and with local authorities in the UK. For more information please visit unicef.org.uk