Unaccompanied child refugees - a matter of right and wrong

Following a presentation by Elaine Carter earlier this year, Labour4Lutterworth raised £460 (plus £150 Gift Aid) for Save the Children and the brilliant work they do with refugee children from Syria. Our local MP on the other hand voted against admitting unaccompanied children from the refugee camps into the UK. We understand that Alberto is new and wants to demonstrate his loyalty to the Tory Whips, but some things are not a matter of Blue and Red, Right and Left, they're simply Right or Wrong. Alberto, in this instance you're plain wrong.

Liz Marsh sent me the details:

Parliament voted on 25th April as part of the Immigration Bill. They were debating whether unaccompanied minors should be admitted to the UK and given support to enable them to access education, health etc.

292 voted to prevent these children entering the UK. 274 (including 5 Tories) voted to allow these children access to the country. Alberto Costa voted to exclude unaccompanied minors.

Following a public outcry, on 4th May the Government changed its stance in response to increasing backbench unrest and support for a Labour amendment tabled in the Lords. It is not clear (but unlikely) whether Alberto was a potential rebel. An article in the Guardian on 7th May http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/should-david-camerons-u-turn-on-unaccompanied-child-refugees-be-celebrated examined the problems and likely benefits of the move. They concluded that about 1-3000 may be admitted, but that an appropriate number might be closer to 10000. they also highlighted the restriction that only children registered as unaccompanied on or before 20th March and residing in Greece, France or Italy would qualify. It is not clear who will pay to support the children or what will happen to them once they pass their 18th birthday and become adults.

Since that article. everything seems to have gone very quiet on the issue and I cannot find any more information; although I will continue to search. I found a very interesting site called the public whip which details the voting record of any MP  http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/25413/alberto_costa/south_leicestershire

Mike Wailoo made a key point at last night's meeting. Despite the heroic work they do, we shouldn't be leaving matters like these to charities. As a rich country it should be a basis of government policy that no child anywhere in the world should go to bed hungry. Now is as good a time as any for the Labour Party nationally to consider making that a mantra.