He said that frustration with the family reunification programme was leading to risk-taking.
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Retired GP Dr Nick Maurice helps treat those who injured in their attempts to flee the Calais “Jungle”, describes a conversation he had with Achmed, a 12-year-old boy who traveled for three-months from Afghanistan to Calais after his father was killed. “A more proactive and urgent response is needed to ensure criminal networks are disrupted and vulnerable migrants, in particular unaccompanied children, are better protected”.
Dubbed the “Great Wall of Calais” by some media, it is an attempt to prevent migrants from trying to stow away on trucks heading for Britain.
The Daily Mail and other campaigners have urged the government to take more lone child refugees.
Campaigners have repeatedly called for the process to be sped up so an estimated 185 children believed to be eligible for humanitarian protection in the United Kingdom can be transferred from Calais.
“There is very little confidence in asylum-seeking procedures in France”, he said, which was also pushing children to risk their lives to get to the UK.
France started constructing a wall funded near the Calais migrant camp Tuesday, in a British-funded effort to prevent refugees from stowing themselves on trucks headed towards the United Kingdom.
The letter said: “The waiting time was simply far too long for them. Unfortunately, migrants had more trust in smugglers than in state led procedures that exist to ensure their protection”.
“Children are not waiting”, he wrote.
The charities also noted an alarming rise in the number of minors in the camp with 1,179 now living there, and they noted that most were unaccompanied. ‘Every night they go to their smugglers who have promised to get them across the Channel.
“This wall is going to prevent migrants from getting onto the road every night”.
“We are dedicated to ensuring that children in Calais with family links in the United Kingdom are identified, receive sufficient support and can access the Dublin family reunification process without delay”.
A spokeswoman for Britain’s Home Office said: “Over 120 cases of unaccompanied children in Europe have been accepted for transfer to the United Kingdom under the Dublin Regulation since the start of the year and we want to build on this progress”.
According to The Guardian, a Home Office spokesperson said the department would respond to Hyland’s recommendations in full in due course.
Construction work has begun on a UK-funded wall near the so-called Jungle migrant camp in Calais.
He was also critical of a French charity, France Terre d’Asile, which received over £500,000 from the United Kingdom government to identify victims of trafficking in the area, pointing out that they had failed to recruit enough interpreters, which “resulted in failure to establish a direct rapport and trust with the migrant community”.
“I said “Ok but I don’t want to go”.
Raheemullah Oryakhel, 14, is believed to have been struck and killed by a auto after falling off a lorry in Calais.
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Lily Caprani, the charity’s deputy executive director, said: ” This tragedy must now lead to action.
