THE WELSH Government has written to Home Secretary Priti Patel MP urging Parliament to support child refugee protection rights which would see them reunited with their families.

Parliament debated an amendment put forward by Labour to reinstate unaccompanied child refugee protection rights, which are protected under European law, in the Brexit bill on January 8.

MPs voted 348 to 252 against the amendment, which would have guaranteed unaccompanied child refugees would be reunited with family living in the UK after Brexit.

In a statement issued on behalf of the Welsh Government, deputy minister and chief whip Jane Hutt AM and deputy minister for health and social services Julie Morgan AM said: “It is of great regret to us all that the UK Government has taken a position contrary to the ‘proud history’ record it often invokes in respect of granting asylum to those that need it.

“In this instance, it has not brought real meaning to those words.

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“The debate continues in the House of Lords and the Withdrawal Bill will return to the Commons next week.

“We await the outcome of the votes and urge Parliament to keep the current provisions.”

The Ministers said Wales was currently home to about 100 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who are without their families, and Wales has provided placements for 18 young people via the Dubs Scheme – a government project which offers unaccompanied refugee children safe passage to Britain following the European migrant crisis.

“In Wales, we do what we safely can to welcome unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who arrive here with no family to go to and we have taken a range of positive actions to support them,” they said.

“Most of these young people do not arrive in a planned way, via a government scheme. This places unique pressures on our social care and other public services.

“This is why we have invested over half a million pounds in funding social work support, training, resources and research for social workers and foster carers to build their professional capacity, cultural competence and confidence in supporting these young people.”

These investments in the health boards by the Wales Strategic Migration Partnership and Welsh Local Government Association have seen a part-time ‘Health Visitor’ appointed in Gwent, who delivers health services for children in the region.

“We would like to offer sanctuary to more young people and we believe that if the UK Government was serious about protecting child refugees, it would properly fund schemes such as Dubs and enable local authorities to increase their capacity to support,” said Ministers.