Cameron U-turn offers hope to lone child refugees in EU at risk of abuse

The British prime minister had previously refused to open Britain’s doors to 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees, a position that was heavily criticized by human rights groups and opposition MPs.

But amid a festering rebellion in his own party, he shifted his position, promising to do more to help the children.

Cameron’s policy reversal was sparked by a group of Tory MPs who were preparing to back a recently proposed amendment to Britain’s Immigration Bill tabled by a Labour member of the House of Lords, Alf Dubs. Cameron said he would not now oppose it a second time.

Cameron agrees to take child refugees f-rom Europe - within certain restrictions - but still a step forward https://t.co/O3EQw5knO8

— Asylum Aid (@AsylumAid) May 4, 2016

The initial amendment called for Britain to house 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees, many of which are forced to live in dire conditions in makeshift camps across Europe.

However, MPs rejected the proposed changes by 294 to 276 votes. The narrow defeat came after the Home Office reportedly convinced Tory MPs concerned about the government’s lackluster response to the refugee crisis, that Westminster is doing enough to help child refugees gripped by crises in Syria and elsewhe-re.

Although Dubs' amendment was defeated, the Labour peer remained defiant and quickly moved to table another. While the second was similar to the first, it lacks a precise figure of how many child refugees the UK should take in.

Here's what PM said on #childrefugees last wk. Has fear of losing vote changed minds? Need action not just words https://t.co/d6deZWMFyE

— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) May 4, 2016

Downing Street has not confirmed how many child refugees will be accepted under the policy change. However, a spokesperson for No 10 said government officials would liaise with councils on the issue. Dubs, himself a former refugee f-rom Nazi-occupied Europe, benefitted f-rom a UK-backed Kindertransport program that welcomed child refugees to Britain as the ravages of the Second World War spread across Europe.

Some 95,000 unaccompanied child refugees are thought to have applied for asylum in Europe in 2015.

The EU’s criminal intelligence agency, Europol, confirmed in early 2016 that 10,000 children had vanished after landing on European soil. The agency said it fears that many had been snatched by criminal syndicates.