Pressure was maintained on the Government this afternoon over the Calais 'Jungle' camp as the Christian Conservative MP David Burrowes tabled an Urgent Question on the plight of children there to the Home Secretary Amber Rudd.
Burrowes, who is vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees, told Rudd that unless more was done to secure the safety of children at the camp, the Prime Minister's recent words about "standing up for the vulnerable" would be "just that – words".
Rudd, who today met with the French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, to discuss dismantling the camp, said that she had made "crystal clear" in her meeting that the "priority must be the safety of children". She added that "we should transfer as many minors as possible" before the dismantling of the camp, which begins next week.
The camp near Calais is set to be destroyed before the end of this year with its 9,000 inhabitants dispersed around France.
Charities working on the ground in Calais estimate that as many as 400 vulnerable unaccompanied child asylum seekers have family in the UK, and are eligible to be resettled in Britain.
Burrowes said that "the question is what is being done to provide safety for children" for whom the Government has a "moral and legal duty of care".
He pressed Rudd to "provide assurance that all children eligible for transfer will be in place before demolition starts". The MP for Enfield Southgate called on the UK with France to create a dedicated centre for the children.
Last week, Burrowes was among 10 Conservative MPs who wrote to Rudd, calling on the Government to do more to help children living in "wretched" and life-threatening conditions in Calais.
The letter, which was also signed by the former education secretary Nicky Morgan, and the acting head of the home affairs select committee, Tim Loughton, highlighted the recent death of a 14-year-old Afghan boy on the roads near Calais, which took place as he tried to reach the UK.
The letter pointed out that the child had a legal right to be reunited with his brother, who lives in the UK, "but having waited for months in wretched conditions for the process to work, he took fate into his own hands with devastating consequences".
It went on: "We are sure you feel as heartbroken as we do about this and the conditions in the camp he was trying to escape. Children are living alone in tents donated by the generous British people, living each day in fear of violence, exposed to criminals and, as we have seen, at risk of losing their lives. With the French authorities planning to dismantle the camp, life is only likely to get harder for these vulnerable children."
The letter added that the Home Office must work with French authorities in the run-up to the planned demolition of the site later this month, to find safe accommodation for the estimated 865 children living in the camp, nearly 80 per cent of whom are staying there alone.
"We must ensure that it is the authorities and the law that help these children, and not the criminals who would put them in the back of trucks," the letter said.
At the weekend, the UK's most senior religious leaders came together to urge Theresa May to allow the 400 children into the UK.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams joined Muslim and Jewish faith leaders to sign the open letter to the Prime Minister.
"We are now just days away from the start of the full demolition of the Calais camp," they wrote.
Children as young as eight "have fled conflict and persecution [and] are now stuck in northern France, deeply traumatised and at great risk, as well-documented by the anti-slavery commissioner you yourself appointed while home secretary", the letter read.
"In haste to clear it, the need to protect children is even more paramount," it continued.
