UK Parliament / Open data

Immigration Bill

Proceeding contribution from Keir Starmer (Labour) in the House of Commons on Monday, 25 April 2016. It occurred during Debate on bills on Immigration Bill.

I will make some progress, if I may, and then I will of course take further interventions.

I have described the situation for millions of families travelling across the world, but we are now dealing with children making such treacherous journeys on their own. It is estimated that there are 26,000 of them in Europe. I met four of them in Glasgow when I visited there. The children—two girls and two boys—were from Iran, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They told me their very powerful stories about their trip across to Europe.

7.30 pm

One of the boys described to me how, aged 14, he had to get into a boat intended for 60, but in which there were 100 adults who were strangers to him. He was ordered to dispose of all his personal items, or he would not have been allowed on the boat. That 14-year-old arrived in Europe, with no personal belongings at all, with stranger adults, and he made the rest of his journey on his own. That is a typical example.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
608 c1206 
Session
2015-16
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
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