In the five terrible years of war in Syria, children are the forgotten victims. Within the country, three million have fled their bombed-out homes and live in makeshift housing. Outside the country, children make up almost a quarter of the five million refugees scattered around the camps of Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. Their education has been disrupted and many are understandably traumatised. They are a lost generation.
The plight of these minors, their backgrounds and often their names and ages are uncertain. According to Europol, the European policing agency, some 10,000 unaccompanied children are on the Continent. This figure remains little more than an educated guess. Some will have been orphaned on the passage across the Mediterranean; others will have been separated from their parents in the long trek overland; others still will have been sent ahead to Europe by despairing families unable to feed them.
Europol and charities speculate that some of these stray children will have been exploited by criminals. The only sure way of helping them, however, is to give them back their names , clearly identify their needs and assess expertly how they can be helped.
That is why the most persuasive policy is to interview, select and prepare distressed children in the camps and hostels of the countries surrounding Syria. The longer they stay in the limbo of the camps the more likely they are to fall prey to recruitment by jihadists. British policy to take 20,000 adults and 3,000 children directly from the region over the next four years is the correct one. Charities working on the ground can pinpoint the most vulnerable. Together with aid workers, doctors and counsellors, it should be possible to find who can best be helped in Britain. Having witnessed death and bombardment, having experienced loss of home and family, many children have serious mental health issues. These children need systematic care rather than the haphazard approach of taking in any unaccompanied Syrian minor to reach the port of Calais.
The pressure to take in the Calais children or indeed any in Europe is understandable. The government bowed yesterday to rebel backbenchers by promising to take in a “specified” number of Syrian orphans from Europe. It should ensure that this is a temporary and limited measure. Unlike those who benefited from Britain’s Kindertransport mission from Nazi Germany, these children are already on safe territory. In France all unaccompanied children are automatically under the protection of the state regardless of their asylum status. At the age of 18, the refugees have to apply for permanent asylum or temporary extension of residence.
Advertisement
Britain’s efforts then are best focused on the children in the camps, helping to educate and treat those who stay, and bringing to our shores those who can most benefit. That addresses most effectively the requirements of the children and allows local authorities to plan school or hospital places and find foster families. The countries neighbouring Syria, buckling under the financial pressure of housing so many refugees, will be duly grateful. Letting in large numbers of children from across the Channel is to repeat the cardinal error of Angela Merkel’s open invitation to migrants. It turns Europe into a magnet and a source of profit for people smugglers.