Refugees from Nazi Europe urge party leaders ahead of election to open safe route to UK for child refugees.
This letter has been sent to the leaders of the Brexit Party, Conservative Party, Democratic Unionist Party, Green Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and Scottish National Party.
The compassion shown by British people over 80 years ago saved us from almost certain death at the hands of the Nazis, when we travelled to this country from Europe as children of the Kindertransport. We will never forget the loved ones we left behind and the millions of others who lost their lives in the Holocaust, and we are incredibly grateful to the UK for offering us sanctuary.
The Kindertransport is rightly considered a proud moment in British history. School children are taught about our journeys. Journalists ask us for interviews. Politicians make statements honouring the Kinder, and the countless individuals who made our rescue possible.
We welcome these statements, and the gratitude expressed by politicians for our contribution to British society. But we believe that the legacy of the Kindertransport requires more than statements of gratitude. We were given safe passage because we were in danger and neither we, nor anyone involved in our rescue, knew what the future held. If this country truly values the Kindertransport and those it saved, it must recognise the urgent need for action to save the lives of child refugees in Europe today.
When 10,000 children arrived in the UK on the Kindertransport, no one could have foreseen the lives we would go on to lead. The Kinder grew up to become teachers, scientists, nurses, doctors, entrepreneurs, artists, MPs and Nobel Prize winners. Many of us have raised families – generations of British citizens who would not be alive today were it not for our own rescue 80 years ago. Like us Kinder, child refugees in Europe today cannot see into the future. But, like us Kinder, they have a right to learn, to have families, to contribute and to grow old in safety.
Though many of the children who have arrived in Europe in recent years have found sanctuary on the continent, there are still thousands who have not been so lucky. There are children trapped in island camps in Greece, in tents on the side of motorways in France, and surviving day-to-day alone and on the move. These children are at constant risk of exploitation and abuse. The dangers could not be greater.
Whilst the circumstances that led to the Kindertransport were of course very different to the situation facing child refugees today, we are nevertheless dismayed by how little has been done in recent years compared to what was achieved 80 years ago. In 1938-39, this country welcomed 10,000 children in 9 months and many ordinary citizens opened their homes to care for them. Today, the only safe and legal route from Europe for children without family here is the Dubs scheme, which is due to close after offering just 480 children sanctuary in the last three years.
We have heard from successive governments about the numbers of children offered protection in the UK following their ‘spontaneous arrival.’ This essentially means children getting to this country without being detected: in the back of lorries, or on dinghies, or squeezed between a wheel arch. This is not a route that any child should have to take, and it is not a situation that any government should be proud of.
We also know that recent government policy has focussed on the resettlement of children from conflict zones outside Europe. Whilst we welcome these programmes, we do not believe that it is right to ignore the desperate need of children on our doorstep. Nor do we agree that denying sanctuary to these children will reduce their attempts to reach safety by other means. A safe and legal route is the best alternative to the smugglers and traffickers that exploit children’s desperation and put their lives at extreme risk.
The end of the Dubs scheme must not mean the end of this country’s compassion towards child refugees in Europe who have no home, no family and no hope. That is why we are writing to all the party leaders, to ask you to support our call for unaccompanied child refugees from Europe to be included in the UK’s future resettlement plans. By giving these children a lasting route to sanctuary, this country will once again lead the way as it did 80 years ago.
Whatever the outcome of the upcoming general election, we urge you to show the compassion and character displayed by so many individuals during the Kindertransport. And we hope that 80 years from now, this country will again be remembered for offering safe passage to today’s unaccompanied children in Europe in their time of need.
Yours sincerely,
Ben Abeles
Ruth Barnett
Jack Black
Michael Brown
Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines
Susanne Kenton
Ann Kirk BEM
Bob Kirk BEM
Eve Leadbeater
Sir Erich Reich, on behalf of the Kindertransport Committee at the Association of Jewish Refugees
Vera Schaufeld MBE
Liane Segal
Elsa Shamash
Dame Stephanie Shirley
Ernest Simon BEM
Henry Wuga
Ingrid Wuga
This letter has been sent to the leaders of the Brexit Party, Conservative Party, Democratic Unionist Party, Green Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and Scottish National Party.