‘Jersey must do its bit to free child refugees from camps’

‘Jersey must do its bit to free child refugees from camps’

On Thursday night hundreds of people are due to gather at Hautlieu School for a sell-out debate, led by Labour peer Lord Alf Dubs, about the possibility of the Island housing unaccompanied child refugees.

And ahead of the event, St Saviour parishioner Linda Houzé (52), who has spent the past seven weeks working as a volunteer teacher at the Ritsona refugee camp in mainland Greece, said Jersey ‘should and could’ play a role in helping the international crisis.

Refugees there, who include about 30 unaccompanied teenagers, can wait for up to a year to get their first asylum meeting.

‘The question is could and should we help?,’ said the mother and grandmother of two.

‘Yes, we could -when we look at the amount of money the Island wastes we certainly could financially. And as for should, yes we should play our part.

‘Other places in the British Isles play their part, so why shouldn’t Jersey?’

She added: ‘If Jersey played its part it could help some of these minors move out of the camp quicker.’

Deputy Carolyn Labey, chairwoman of the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission, has said there are logistical issues to consider but Islanders must remember that children from Jersey were given safe haven during the Occupation.

She said: ‘If we decide to take in refugee children, we must seriously consider if we would be contributing to the misery of people-trafficking by adding to the reward potentially on offer for sending children across the Mediterranean in a dinghy.’

Thousands of refugees, including children, have died during perilous crossings, often organised by smugglers, from north Africa and the Middle East to Europe.

The Deputy, who was a member of the panel at a fiery meeting to discuss the possibility of Jersey housing refugees in 2015, added: ‘We also need to decide if we would restrict the children to Syrian refugees and why not from Yemen or Burma?

‘Children’s Services and Education need to establish if we have enough host families and relevant support services to ensure that refugee children are provided for in every way.’

The JOAC has donated more than £3.5 million to support refugees from Syria and people displaced internally in the war-torn country since 2013.

Speaking about the conditions at the Ritsona Camp, about an hour north of Athens and home to almost 900 refugees, largely from Syria and Africa, Mrs Houzé said it was ‘bleak and ugly’.

‘The first couple of weeks here I was not sure I could do it.

‘But this camp is far better than others on the islands like Lesbos.

‘People here live in metal cabins, like you would see on a building site, which is better than a tent. But they are freezing in the winter and too hot in the summer,’ she said.

She added: ‘People in Jersey are frightened unnecessarily. We are not just going to round up kids, it’ll likely be managed thorough the UN, if it’s possible. Jersey needs to do its bit.’

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