These Are The MPs Who Voted Against Accepting Child Refugees From Europe

A child is kept warm after arriving from Turkey on a raft to the Greek island of Lesbos. Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Conservative MPs defeated a Labour proposal to allow 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees to come to the UK from Europe by 294 votes to 276 on Monday night, in a narrow victory for the government.

Labour peer Lord Dubs made the proposal and likened it to the Kindertransport scheme, which allowed children to escape Nazi-controlled areas of Europe before the second world war. But ministers said they were concerned it would only encourage more refugees to come to Europe.

Just five Conservative MPs rebelled against their party’s stance and voted to allow in the refugees: Geoffrey Cox, Tania Mathis, Stephen Phillips, Will Quince, and David Warburton. A further 10 Tory MPs chose to abstain rather than vote against the government.

UKIP, the DUP, and the UUP all backed the Conservative stance.

All the Labour, Liberal Democrat, and SNP MPs who were in parliament voted in favour of the proposal, but this was not enough to produce a victory. Analysis by the Lib Dem whips office suggests over 20 Labour MPs abstained on the vote; had they voted in favour, it could have been enough to pass the proposal. However, many of these Labour MPs may have been absent due to illness or because they had made pairing arrangements with Tory MPs who were unable to attend, meaning it is unlikely the result would have changed.

Labour will now table a similar amendment today in the House of Lords that will propose to let in a smaller number of unaccompanied children refugees who are already in Europe.

These are the MPs who voted against the proposal to let in 3,000 child refugees:


List on link:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/these-are-the-mps-who-voted-against-accepting-child-refugees?utm_term=.ghpKxEq3a

If they are already in Europe then surely they will already be being sufficiently looked after...!?


Plus... they have come from safety and security of western Turkey...



And had plenty of money for their boat trips...!!!


Paid for by who...!?


The parents by any chance...!?



Sending their children off with criminal people trafficking gangs to their potential deaths...!?

That's a lot of questions Tommy

Your op has a lot of spin...

The Government should be ashamed. Yesterday they voted to deny sanctuary to child refugees who are alone and at grave risk. Our country is better than this. The Government’s cowardice is letting vulnerable children down, and letting Britain down too.

These children have already fled conflict and violence back home. They have lost family or been separated from loved ones. Yet children's homes in Italy and Greece are full, services can't cope, and as a result many face even greater risks of abuse, sexual violence and exploitation.

Children sleeping rough in Northern Greece because the children's homes there are full; 11-year-olds sleeping alone in tents in Calais, suffering scabies and bronchitis; teenagers getting caught up in prostitution rings in Naples, because the hostels are full and there is nowhere safe for them to go; 13-year-olds with sexually transmitted diseases; teenage boys who have been raped.

Just a few weeks ago seven-year-old Ahmed nearly suffocated in a lorry in Leicester. The only reason he survived was because an aid worker in Calais had given him a mobile phone and he was able to send a text message saying that he did not have any oxygen. The aid worker was able to alert the police, and they traced the lorry he was in. The system is not working – and children are taking crazy risks every day to find someone, somewhere to keep them safe.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/the-governments-cowardice-over-the-plight-of-child-refugees-puts-britain-to-shame-a7001936.html

Labour peer Lord Alf Dubs, who was himself rescued as a child after being forced to flee the Nazis, pushed for the amendment to the Immigration Bill.
He called on the government to remember the Kindertransport, which brought children at risk from Nazi-controlled Germany to safety. 


Better news tonight:

The government has suffered fresh defeat in the House of Lords over its refusal to accept unaccompanied child refugees from Europe.

MPs will be now be forced to reconsider an amendment to the immigration bill after peers voted overwhelmingly in support of plans to relocate a specified number of children in the UK.

The move follows Monday's vote in the Commons, when politicians narrowly rejected a motion to admit 3,000 children.

The result sparked fierce condemnation from Labour and refugee charities.
"Ministers should be deeply ashamed of what they have done," said Labour's Yvette Cooper, who heads up the party's refugee taskforce.

http://www.theweek.co.uk/refugee-crisis/64108/house-of-lords-rejects-government-veto-on-child-refugee-plan

My MP was one of the supercilious toffee nosed areholes who voted against allowing them in.  Hundreds of people in this area have tweeted him the petition and sent him emails, tweets and messages on his facebook page to tell him we are utter ashamed of him.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/128833

Britain must not turn its back on child refugees in Europe
The Government should accept the call to give sanctuary to child refugees who are alone and at risk in Europe.

Well this is what struck me; these are children, not men of fighting age - as people have rightly pointed out.

Thousands of them have simply disappeared, they think many are being sexually exploited, some have died because of not being able to look after themselves, all kinds of terrible things are happening to them.   It breaks my heart.   I would like to think that, in my younger days,  if there was uproar in this country and I died, or had become separated from my children, that governments would seek to protect the children first.   It seems they doen't give a fuck.

Waffle...

Tommy Monk wrote:

Waffle...

Always a great comeback Tommy

Read the waffle that the comeback was delivered to...

Waffle!    These are children we are talking about Tommy, children who are dying and getting raped and utterly vile things are happening to them.   They are getting sick and having accidents because they are not being looked after, and you call it waffle.   It's all documented.  How low can you go Tommy, because I would not have thought it possible for you to go any lower, but you will probably manage it.


We took in thousands of Jewish children, gave them safetly and helped them rebuild their lives, but these are Muslim and Christian children that have brown skin, and you can't stand that can you?   Despicable.

From the first two lines of op...



"A child is kept warm after arriving from Turkey on a raft to the Greek island of Lesbos. Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Conservative MPs defeated a Labour proposal to allow 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees to come to the UK from Europe by 294 votes to 276 on Monday night, in a narrow victory for the government...





Seems the only danger these children were facing when leaving Turkey in a rickety overloaded raft of potential death... was the danger of being put into the rickety overloaded raft of potential death to leave the safety and security of Turkey...

You stupid, stupid man.

Why were they leaving turkey then?

eddie wrote:Why were they leaving turkey then?

Why are any of them leaving the safety of Turkey...?

Report on child refugees highlights 'unacceptable' risk

Risks for child refugees in Europe include trafficking, exploitation, illness, death, according to ombudspersons report.

Amsterdam, the Netherlands -  Child refugees face unacceptable risks on their way through Europe. Among these risks are illness, trafficking, exploitation, sexual abuse and even death. European countries are seriously failing to protect these children on the move.
This is the conclusion of a report on the safety of child refugees by the Taskforce on Children on the Move, an initiative of 41 ombudspersons for children from 33 European countries.  
"The rights of refugee children are merely a footnote in the European Union-agenda on migration, whereas they should be at the core of it," said Marc Dullaert, the chairman of the Network of European Ombudspersons for Children, during the presentation of the report, yesterday in Amsterdam.




The situation is now all the more urgent, Dullaert said, because the number of child refugees coming to Europe has increased dramatically. In June 2015, 16 percent of all migrants crossing the Mediterranean were children. By December this number had more than doubled to 35 percent.
In 2015, at least 337,000 children were registered as asylum seekers in Europe, but their real number is believed to be much higher.

Dangerous journey

The journey across the Mediterranean is very dangerous for children, according to the report.

One third of all migrants who die during the crossing are children. For the ones who survive a difficult and traumatising journey lies ahead.
"When child refugees arrive in Greece, they are wet and cold," said Dullaert. "Some suffer from hypothermia, which can lead to serious illnesses like pneumonia. We know of cases where babies died of hypothermia. There is a serious lack of immediate help at the shores in Greece. In Lesbos, for example, refugees have to walk 70km to the reception centre," Dullaert said.

According to the report, the situation in the transit centres along the Western Balkan route is often deplorable. Only 22 to 45 percent of the centres have been 'winterised', which means children have to sleep in unheated tents or sheds at temperatures below zero.



Sanitary facilities are often inadequate. "This is really shameful. We all know that each year there's a winter. That is a fact of life we can prepare for," said Dullaert.

Some children face sexual abuse and violence in the transit centres. At the chaotic border controls children run the risk to be separated from their parents. Unaccompanied children are prone to become victims of trafficking, sexual exploitation or extortion by smugglers. They also run the risk to be placed in detention, in some cases even for several months.

"All these European countries that refugees pass through have signed the European Convention of the Rights of the Child. They cannot turn a blind eye to this situation," said Dullaert.

A call for action

The report calls upon the European Commission to immediately develop an action plan to protect refugee children. An important practical change would be the improvement of the transit centres on the route through Europe.

Many of the refugee centres across Europe are not equipped for the winter [Mona van den Berg/Al Jazeera]

The centres should be equipped with heating, warm water, blankets and warm clothes. Child-friendly spaces and separate sleeping areas for men and women and children should be created.


On a political level the report urges European countries to an increase the possibilities for family reunification, instead of decreasing them as some states  are now trying to do.

Furthermore, the report calls for priority to be given to orphans and families with children in the relocation schemes for the 160,000 refugees who are now in Greece and Italy but need to be redistributed among other European countries.

---

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What the effect of the ombudsperson's call for action will be, remains uncertain.

"As children's ombudspersons we cannot force governments to take action," Dullaert said. "We can only put this issue on the agenda. But we have already been invited to present our report at several important summits. So it will certainly be discussed in the biggest international forums."



"We are very happy with this report," said Margot Ende, director of SOS Children's Villages Netherlands, one of the NGOs setting up child friendly spaces in transit centres in the Balkans.



"This survey draws attention to the problems of child refugees and that is a very good thing. But it remains to be seen if concrete measures will be taken immediately to improve the lot of these children. Many of the problems described in the report have been known for quite some time, and yet so far nothing has been done about it. There really is need for action."



http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/01/report-child-refugees-highlights-unacceptable-risk-160126074459037.html


And Turkey?

That will be the Turkey that is now using live ammunition to shoot at desperate women and children trying to flee the boming:

Turkish border forces ‘fire live rounds at Syrian refugees’ fleeing Isis fighting
'As civilians flee Isis fighters, Turkey is responding with live ammunition instead of compassion'

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/turkish-border-forces-fire-live-rounds-at-syrian-refugees-fleeing-isis-fighting-a6986771.html

And the op is about allowing some more of those who are already in the safety of eu nations...


Where they can already be well looked after!

eddie wrote:Why were they leaving turkey then?

Because contrary to belief, although Turkey has taken in millions they have also killed Syrian Kurds and are now using live ammunition about Syrian refugees.

Tommy Monk wrote:And the op is about allowing some more of those who are already in the safety of eu nations...


Where they can already be well looked after!

FGS, read the OP, they ARE NOT SAFE and are NOT being looked after, which is the whole point.

West coast of Turkey is safe for them... and they seem to have plenty of money for boat rides... stay there!!!

Money is not the bloody point BOMBS ARE, AND GASSING ETC ETC ETC   ISIS terrorising them.

West coast of Turkey is lovely...