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Thank you, with permission H would like to make a statement on Calais. | :00:21. | :00:25. | |
The French government today began the clearance of the migrant camp. I | :00:26. | :00:30. | |
clear this is an national interest of the UK and France. It is the | :00:31. | :00:36. | |
start of a challenging but necessary humanitarian operation and `n | :00:37. | :00:39. | |
important step in bringing to an end to the difficult situation. | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
Priorities are to keep the border secure, to tackle the criminal gangs | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
profiting from the lives of the vulnerable and to ensure those in | :00:47. | :00:53. | |
the camp in need of protecthon on moves to places of safety. The camp | :00:54. | :00:55. | |
clearance supports all thesd objectives. On the 10th of October I | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
updated the house having met with my French counterpart. We had discussed | :01:00. | :01:05. | |
amongst other things the importance of keeping all children safd during | :01:06. | :01:10. | |
the camp clearance. My officials have been working with French | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
authorities to ensure this protection is provided. And UK | :01:15. | :01:18. | |
personnel are taking an acthve role on the grounds today helping to move | :01:19. | :01:22. | |
all children to a place of safety. They will continue to do so for as | :01:23. | :01:28. | |
as necessary. That meeting was one of many over the past few months and | :01:29. | :01:33. | |
we have made good progress to speed up the process of transferrhng | :01:34. | :01:37. | |
children with a close familx in the UK. More than 80 children whth a | :01:38. | :01:41. | |
family link here were transferred from France in the first nine months | :01:42. | :01:45. | |
of this year under the Dublhn regulation. But I have been pressing | :01:46. | :01:50. | |
to go even further and this house will recall on the 10th of October I | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
stated my commitment to bring to the UK as many children as posshble with | :01:56. | :01:59. | |
close family links before the closure of the camp. I also make | :02:00. | :02:03. | |
clear my intention to transfer unaccompanied refugee children from | :02:04. | :02:08. | |
Calais who meet the criteri` of the dubs amendments to the immigration | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
act 2016. Since my statement, working with the French, we have | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
transferred almost 200 children including more than 60 girls, many | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
of whom had been identified as at risk of sexual exploitation, they | :02:25. | :02:26. | |
are receiving the care and support they need in the UK. I want to make | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
clear to this house governmdnt has sought every opportunity to expedite | :02:33. | :02:36. | |
the process to transfer children the UK. My officials were only given | :02:37. | :02:42. | |
access to the camp to interview children in the last week and | :02:43. | :02:45. | |
similarly we have only recently received agreement from the French | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
government that we could brhng cases to the UK. For this, we worked | :02:49. | :02:54. | |
closely with the French behind-the-scenes but withott their | :02:55. | :02:57. | |
agreement was impossible to make progress on taking normal f`mily | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
cases from Calais. In the l`st seven days my officials have interviewed | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
800 children claiming to have close family in the UK, working in | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
conjunction with NGOs in ch`rities. Every child presented in last week | :03:14. | :03:17. | |
has been interviewed by UK staff, much of the work has been c`rried | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
out in difficult conditions. On a number of occasions intervidws have | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
been paused and UK staff have withdrawn for safety reasons. I | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
thank the French authorities for the additional protection they provided | :03:30. | :03:33. | |
throughout and to put on record my gratitude for work done by ly staff | :03:34. | :03:39. | |
in what has been challenging conditions. Until a few weeks you, | :03:40. | :03:42. | |
the French government requested we did not transfer children ottside of | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
the Dublin regulation process. This was due to their concerns this may | :03:48. | :03:50. | |
encourage more children to come to Calais. That is why a until recently | :03:51. | :03:56. | |
we focused efforts to children in Greece and Italy where we h`ve 0 | :03:57. | :04:02. | |
cases in progress. Looking `head, we will bring more children from Calais | :04:03. | :04:06. | |
to the UK in the coming days and weeks. As well as the remaining | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
children with close family hn the UK, we will continue to transfer | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
unaccompanied refugee children from Calais under the wider critdria of | :04:15. | :04:20. | |
the dubs amendments. We will follow three guiding principles in | :04:21. | :04:23. | |
determining who we bring to the UK from Calais and the dubs amdndment. | :04:24. | :04:28. | |
We will prioritise those likely to be granted refugee status in the UK, | :04:29. | :04:34. | |
we will also prioritise those 12-year-olds or under and wd will | :04:35. | :04:38. | |
consider those assessed as being at high risk of sexual exploit`tion. In | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
doing this we establish whether it is in each child's best intdrests to | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
come here. But through this process, it is important we do not encourage | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
more children to head to Calais Risking their lives in the hands of | :04:54. | :04:57. | |
traffickers. That is why we will only consider those present at the | :04:58. | :05:02. | |
camps before the start of clearances today. We will continue to do this | :05:03. | :05:07. | |
quickly but it is essential we carry out the proper safeguarding, age | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
assessment and security checks working closely with local | :05:12. | :05:14. | |
authorities and social workdrs in the UK to ensure the childrdn are | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
eligible and it is in their best interests to come. I'm pleased to | :05:20. | :05:22. | |
say my French counterpart h`s agreed to support miners in safe f`cilities | :05:23. | :05:27. | |
in France during the weeks we need to carry out these important checks. | :05:28. | :05:33. | |
It is important on arrival `nd identities of the children `re not | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
compromised and they are allowed to begin their life here with the | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
support they need. It is crtcial we ensure local authorities ard able to | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
manage the numbers coming hdre as part of our commitments unddr the | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
amendment we have consulted with local authorities on capacity. It is | :05:51. | :05:56. | |
clear there is capacity to support children from Calais as well as | :05:57. | :05:59. | |
meeting our other commitments. The key now is to make sure we get these | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
places up and running as soon as possible. I would pay tribute to the | :06:05. | :06:09. | |
work and generosity of local authorities so far in providing both | :06:10. | :06:13. | |
the temporary and permanent support the children arriving here require. | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
However, as more children arrived, we will need to identify further | :06:18. | :06:23. | |
places and we will work with local authorities over the coming days. | :06:24. | :06:26. |