A Tory MP has spoken of her "embarrassment" at the Government's response to the plight of unaccompanied refugee children in Europe, urging ministers to "find those children before it is too late and bring them home for good".

Speaking during a Westminster Hall debate on the issue, Heidi Allen (South Cambridgeshire) said: "Our ability to save the lives of children is immediate, it's very doable and frankly it's incumbent on us as members of the human race."

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Ms Allen recalled her visits to Lesbos and Calais adding she was "astounded" to find a lack of coherent asylum processing and support for the most vulnerable child refugees, branding it "organised chaos".

She said: "When the Great British public are feeding and safeguarding the refugee children of Calais I am filled with immense pride but also embarrassment.

"They are having to do that work, if the British people are there then so should be this Government. This is not France's problem - our compassion, our Dunkirk spirit and geographical proximity have made it our problem too.

"So I urge the minister to do everything in his power, find those children before it is too late and bring them home for good."

Ms Allen was one of a number of Tory members plus members from across the House who voiced concerns about the Government's action to date.

MPs are next week due to consider Labour peer Lord Dubs' amendment to the Immigration Bill in relation to the campaign for an additional 3,000 unaccompanied children to be accepted by the UK.

The Government was defeated last month as peers voted to require the Government to let the children, currently in Europe, come to Britain.

Conservative David Burrowes, who brought the debate, said there was a need for a proper long-term plan akin to the Government's long-term economic plan "mantras", adding it would be "wonderful" to have a "long-term separated children plan".

He said: "It's important that we are properly compassionate... we must match an ambition to properly accept our fair share of unaccompanied children."

The MP for Enfield, Southgate, said there was a need to ensure Britain had the "right package of support" for separated children who had fled war and persecution and faced exploitation and destitution, "to avoid them going back into the same risk".

Responding, immigration minister James Brokenshire said he intended to "follow through" on the statement that he made at the end of January and "come forward with a clearer statement to Parliament in the coming days".

He said: "I recognise the call for the Government to take more action, the UK has been working with the UNHCR around this issue and we will be doing more."

Mr Burrowes spoke about Britain's responsibilities for separated children on arrival, whether through a formal resettlement plan or irregular routes.

In February 2016, he said children accounted for more than a third of all refugees and migrants compared to just one in 10 in June 2015, with a 57% increase in the number of children seeking asylum in the UK in the last year.

In relation to undocumented unaccompanied children, he added there were some 2,168 asylum applications in the year ending June 2015, an increase of 46% from the previous year.

Mr Burrowes said when a child arrived under a formal resettlement programme it was offered a five-year humanitarian protection visa, but with undocumented children, particularly those arriving unaccompanied, they were granted unaccompanied asylum-seeking child (UASC) leave for 30 months or until the child was 17.5 years old.

He said: "That leave fails to really in its own way represent that long-term solution we all want... And we would effectively be failing that vulnerable person unless we provide the long-term support."

Mr Burrowes said separated children were at particular risk, with approximately 10,000 having gone missing - many into the hands of traffickers.

He said: "These are children who are at risk and they must be treated as children at risk and we must look at a way of properly categorising and supporting them within a children protection status, that recognises their inherent at risk status that won't end just because they've come to this country and a place of safety."

He added it would be "an appalling dereliction of our duty" if Britain helped to provide some sanctuary away from the risk of exploitation and destitution, but they were then in that "same cycle of risk in this country".

Tory MP and former minister Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) also stressed the need for a better long-term plan for those children progressing into adulthood, stating "their vulnerability does not change on the day they become 18".