SPRING UPDATE 2017 REPORT JANUARY MARCH 2018 2017 REPORT
ITALY In the last few months, we have secured the first transfers of unaccompanied minors from Italy to European countries other than the UK. All Eritrean children, one has been transferred to France and one to Switzerland, and two more are awaiting transfer to Switzerland, all to be reunited with family. We are working with the Safe Passage team in France and NGOs and Social Services in Switzerland to ensure support is provided for these children on arrival We currently have 18 live cases, including two further Eritrean children pending transfer to the UK In January, we ran a training course for protection actors and legal providers on family reunification under the Dublin III Regulation with the support of UNHCR We are in ongoing dialogue with UNICEF and UNHCR around improving capacity building to protect minors best interest and to support the Italian legal system in this direction GREECE We have successfully transferred two Syrian boys from Greece and one Somalian boy from Cyprus to the UK and are working to support them on arrival We currently have four live cases and are monitoring five more In March, we organised two workshops on family reunification under Dublin III for asylum seekers with family members in Germany in collaboration with Refugee Law Clinics on the island of Chios and in Athens. The workshops were attended by 72 lawyers and social workers from Greek NGOs Safe Passage Greece, in collaboration with the UK advocacy team, continues to push for more refugee children in Greece to be accepted under the Dubs scheme. The UK government s revised cut-off date for the scheme (see UK section below) greatly increases the number of eligible children from Greece We are currently working with the Greek NGO PRAKSIS on a joint research project around the functionality of the Dublin III regulation in Greece, which will culminate in a joint report to better inform the work of legal practitioners and produce recommendations at a national and EU level
FRANCE We currently have 21 live cases and two pending transfer Our team in France worked in partnership with Auberge Des Migrants to organise a petition ahead of the meeting between President Macron and Prime Minister Theresa May in January. It drew 15,000 signatures, successfully putting pressure on both governments to take action to end the deaths of children in Calais seeking to reach family members in the UK Our French team hosted the visit of a Conservative MP, Jeremy Lefroy, and a Bishop from the UK in January, with the aim of persuading them to champion the continuation of Dublin III provision after Brexit Safe Passage contributed to a report by Refugee Rights Europe documenting discrimination faced by refugees in France. The findings include: o Nearly 45% of unaccompanied children reported that they don t feel safe o Minors reported being refused appropriate and transparent age assessments, while many who had been deemed underage remain on the streets due to lack of accommodation o Of those minors who had family elsewhere in Europe, 66.7% had family in the UK, suggesting they could be eligible for transfer under the Dublin III Regulation EUROPEAN LEVEL In January, Safe Passage wrote a policy paper with key recommendations for the Interparliamentary Committee Meeting at the European Parliament regarding safe and legal routes and family reunion. It called on other member states to apply similar timescales to the 25 days agreed on by Macron and May for family reunion for children. It also called for the harmonisation of evidence i.e. setting reasonable and realistic evidence requirements among member states; using discretionary clauses; retaining highquality safeguarding principles for children; and providing all children with decent and age-appropriate reception conditions We have participated in several European-level consultations, including contributing to a communication from the European Commission on the protection of children in migration for the European Parliament
UNITED KINGDOM ADVOCACY AND CAMPAIGNS After 2 years of campaigning by Safe Passage and partners, the UK and French governments committed to reducing the waiting time for family reunion to 25 days for children, and 30 days for adults. The UK also pledged 3.6m to improve the process In January, the government announced that the cut-off date for eligibility to travel under the Dubs scheme would be changed to include children arriving in Europe before 19th January 2018. Previously, only children who arrived before 20th March 2016 were eligible. This means that the remaining 250 spaces available under the scheme should filled and many more children can be brought to safety As part of the 80th anniversary celebrations of the Kindertransport efforts that saved 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi persecution, Safe Passage went to Downing Street with five Kinder, accompanied by Barbara Winton, the daughter of Kindertransport organiser Sir Nicholas Winton, and Lord Alf Dubs, to deliver a letter urging the government to accept more refugee children into the UK under the Dubs scheme In March, the Refugee Family Reunion Bill was successfully voted through to the next stage, with 129 MPs voting in favour and support from all parties across the political spectrum who feel the current refugee family reunion rules are too restrictive and need to be expanded to enable more families to be together We successfully supported an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill to ensure that the continuation of Dublin III legislation after Brexit is debated in Parliament One of the young refugees we helped to reach the UK, Ishmael, appeared on ITV News on the seventh anniversary of the Syrian conflict earlier in March to talk about his experiences and the work of Safe Passage. After fleeing Aleppo and a 16-month journey to the UK (13 of which were in Calais), Ishmael was one of the first refugees to arrive through the Dubs amendment. Ishmael is now 18 and studying politics at university, and has started work experience with Lord Alf Dubs in Parliament ARRIVALS 10 children have arrived in the UK so far this year with support from Safe Passage Half of these are world work cases, the first transfers of children directly from their country of origin to the UK, with 1 transferred from Turkey, 2 from Sudan and 2 from Saudi Arabia RESEARCH We have completed a report on the support received by Dublin arrivals in the UK, drawing on research that we carried out, showing that children arriving through this family reunion route often do not have access to the support they need to settle and establish full lives. The report makes a series of recommendations which we plan to use in private advocacy with the Department of Education, Home Office and Local Authorities to improve support for these children
OUR PARTNERS We are grateful to the following partners for their support: Aziz Foundation Children in Need Comic Relief Evan Cornish Foundation Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust Mercy Mission Oak Foundation Paul Hamlyn Foundation Sigrid Rausing Trust Strategic Legal Fund Unbound Philanthropy UNHCR We are also grateful to our legal partners at the following firms: Ashurst Bhatt Murphy Doughty Street Elder rahimi GMIAU Islington Law Reed Smith Southwark Law Centre Wesley Gryk Solicitors LLP Wilsons We would also like to thank all of our donors and Friends of Safe Passage. Without them our work would not be possible.