Dubs puts forward the landmark amendment to the Immigration Act which committed the UK government to relocating vulnerable child refugees in France, Italy and Greece.
On Wednesday, a statement by UK Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill confirmed that the Dubs scheme would be closed once the United Kingdom took in 350 unaccompanied child refugees, which includes over 200 children already transferred. The exact number of minors to be taken has never been officially specified by the UK government but campaigners originally called for about 3,000 migrants to be accepted.
"We`re not the only country that should be taking unaccompanied child refugees, but we have no right to back off and say we`re not going to take any. I think that`s really shabby," Dubs told Sky News.
In March 2016, the so-called Dubs amendment, aimed at allowing for the resettlement of unaccompanied refugee children from migrant centers in Europe to the United Kingdom, passed a vote in the House of Lords. Sponsored by Lord Dubs, who himself had come to the country as a child through the Kindertransport program that rescued Jewish children from Nazi Germany and Eastern Europe, the amendment failed to gain sufficient support in the House of Commons.
Dubs later resubmitted the amendment, and it was eventually passed in May.
UK lawmaker calls decision to close migrant children acceptance scheme `Shabby`
09 February 2017
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A decision of the UK government to close child migrant scheme is "shabby" as it has "no right" to stop accepting unaccompanied minors, Lord Alfred Dubs, a Labour peer said Wednesday.
