Greg DalyIreland should act immediately to help child refugees in Calais by taking in 200 unaccompanied children, Sr Stanislas Kennedy has said. The founder of the Immigrant Council of Ireland called on the Taoiseach to respond to admissions by French President Francois Hollande that 1,500 unaccompanied children are at risk and housed in containers outside the site of the former so-called ‘Jungle’ camp at the French port.
Migrant camps, known as ‘jungles’ have been a feature of the northern port city since 2002, when Sangatte, the port’s original migrant reception facility, closed. On October 26, the French government announced that the camp had been cleared, after previously revealing plans to use 170 buses to distribute 6,400 migrants throughout France.
In the aftermath of the camp clearance, Sr Stan said, French authorities disputed volunteers’ claims that more than a thousand unaccompanied children remained in the vicinity of the camp, arguing that Mr Hollande’s subsequent admission “should shock every citizen of Europe to their core”.
“The longer Ireland stands quietly in the shadows the more shame we bring on ourselves,” she said.