“We are planning it. We are looking at it whether we can do more in relation to…” 

 

“Three thousand children probably been withdrawn with X”

 

“…absolutely in relation to unaccompanied children because children have always been from day one at the heart of our response in the region.”

 

The government has already said it’ll take in 20,000 refugees from camps on the borders of Syria. The three thousand children are expected to be included in that number. The Liberal Democrats say they should be in addition. It’s emerged the Lib-Dems agree to support an expansion of Britain’s bombing campaign into Syria in exchange for progress on the refugee issue.

 

“We said very clearly at the time that there could be no justification in effort of a package which involves that military action in Syria, it would also involve attacking the refugee crisis in a human way and in an ambitious way, both because it’s right, morally right, and secondly because it sends out the right signal and you are trying to win hearts and minds in the Muslin world, so we end up defeating Daesh with the broadest coalition possible.”

 

Former solider Rob Lawrie is campaigning for better treatment of migrant children. He now escaped to jail sentence for trying to smuggle a four-year-old Afghan girl Barah Ahmadi to Britain from the Jungle migrant camp in Calais. He says the child’s father begged him to take his daughter to relatives in Leeds. 

 

“Whatever happens, whatever you throw at me, I’ll always say it’s better for a child to be a warm loving house with first parents, then live in, you know, in a camp X with either the parents or with someone who’s taken them on. We’ve shown the human side. We’ve shown they are children in these camps suffering. So it’s a selfish attitude X, but the platform is created X.”

 

The critics are concerned opening the door to child migrants will send the wrong message to their relatives.

 

“These huge numbers of movement to people equally difficult to actually identify clearly these children are actually all orphaned. We won’t find that once they are entering in this country, parents surprisingly then reappear and actually claim a right to join their children.”

 

The biting cold and paralyzed sea crossings have done little to deter those trying to reach in Europe, setting up pressure on European governments to find a solution to the misery of the migrants.

 

Lisa Holland, Sky News.