Great Britain has cancelled a scheme for relocating child migrants from the refugee camps of Europe.
The Government announced this week that the so-called “Dubs route”, by which underage children from areas like the Calais “jungle” camp were allowed to come to the UK, will stop.
Officials had been pressured into increasing the UK’s efforts to rehome people who came to the continent from the Middle East and North Africa.
Although it never committed to a number, campaigners had hoped some 3,000 children would ultimately be taken in – but the final figure will instead be 350.
There had been widespread concern earlier earlier arrivals from Calais into Britain were not in fact the children they claimed to be (pictured above).
One MP suggested to Heat Street that dental checks could prevent overage people taking advantage of the scheme – but despite widespread coverage of the idea, authorities ultimately opted not to.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said that the scheme was discontinued because it gave people trafficking gangs an incentive to bring children to Europe.
Rudd said: “I am clear that when working with my French counterparts they do not want us to indefinitely continue to accept children under the Dubs amendment because they specify, and I agree with them, that it acts as a draw.
“It acts as a pull. It encourages the people traffickers.”
Rudd also pointed out that the UK has spent £2.3billion responding to the war in Syria, far more than many other Western nations.
She said the Government is still committed to taking 3,000 child refugees displaced by the conflict, but will take them directly from the Middle East instead.
