France - Children’s Commissioner for England calls on French Government to take action in Calais

Source : www.picum.org

« The Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, has urged the French authorities to help unaccompanied children in Calais.
The Children’s Commissioner asked authorities to speed up the asylum claims of 150 children who are currently in Calais and who may be enabled to reach their relatives in the UK. The Commissioner also expressed specific concern about the lack of protection for unaccompanied children in Calais. Major concerns related to reports that 129 children have disengaged from French child protection authorities, and lack of action taken regarding health care and identifying trafficking. A spokesman for the French embassy in London confirmed that ‘several dozens of lone minors in Calais (…) would have the right to enter Britain’. He assured however that the welfare of children in Calais is ensured by the French authority, who relocated them to emergency accommodation when part of the “jungle”, as the camp in Calais is often referred to, was dismantled. »