Migrant Crisis: Call for State to admit 200 children from Calais

The Government is facing calls to relocate some of the 1,400 unaccompanied children still at the Calais migrant camp to Ireland.

A cross-party Opposition motion calling for the “immediate” relocation of 200 of the children from the makeshift camp, known as the “Jungle”, near the French port, is to be debated in the Dáil on Wednesday.

Among those supporting the call are the Children’s Rights Alliance (CRA), the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu).

Taoiseach Enda Kenny must “do the right thing and intervene to relocate these children to Ireland”, Tanya Ward, chief executive of the CRA, said last night, while Ictu said Ireland must “assist France . . . by offering to take 200 of the unaccompanied children from Calais”.

Sr Stanislaus Kennedy of the ICI said: “There can now be no disputing the scale of the need, or its urgency, and the longer Ireland stands quietly in the shadows the more shame we bring on ourselves.”

Shipping containers

French authorities have almost completed the demolition of the camp and dispersed about 6,000 adult migrants across France. However, up to 1,400 unaccompanied children remain, some as young as six, most of them housed in shipping containers.

Irish volunteers working with the children say many are displaying signs of depression and post-traumatic stress, and anxiety is increasing as the children are not clear about what their future holds.

The Department of Justice and Tusla, the Child and Family Agency were “actively working on relocating 20 unaccompanied minors from Greece”, a spokesman said. So far one has arrived.