UNHCR welcomes the new UK initiative to help unaccompanied children in Europe

Following the UK Government’s announcement of a new initiative for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to be brought to the UK from Greece, Italy and France, the UNHCR Representative to the United Kingdom Gonzalo Vargas Llosa said:

We welcome the UK Government’s announcement today of the new initiative to bring unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in Europe to the UK. This latest decision will contribute to UNHCR’s continuing efforts to address the global protection needs of asylum seeking and refugee children, through greater responsibility-sharing by States.  

UNHCR is pleased that the new scheme builds on the existing resettlement of 20,000 places for vulnerable Syrian refugees and the recently announced scheme to resettle 3,000 children at risk, including unaccompanied and separated children, from the crisis areas in the Middle East and North Africa. The UK is also one of the strongest supporters of the international response to meet the massive humanitarian needs of more than 4.8 million Syrian refugees and the neighbouring countries hosting them.

Building on the positive experiences of the Gateway resettlement programme and the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS), UNHCR is ready to support the implementation of the new scheme in a close partnership with the UK and other concerned governments and partners.