THE Scottish and Welsh governments have written to the UK Immigration Minister raising concerns about the treatment of unaccompanied child refugees.
Scottish Secretary for communities Angela Constance, and her Welsh counterpart Carl Sargeant have sent a joint letter to Brandon Lewis which criticises "lack of planning and sharing of useful information" in the so-called Dubs scheme to resettle the children.
They also backed a recommendation from a recent UK Parliament human trafficking inquiry that the scheme needs to be more open.
Earlier this year it emerged that the programme, which required the Government to resettle an unspecified number of unaccompanied minors from Europe, would close after 480 were brought to the UK – well below the 3,000 campaigners had called for.
The letter states: "From the start of the implementation of this scheme, we have struggled with the lack of information that has been forthcoming from those running this operation.
"This continues to be the case and we are aware that only a couple of hundred unaccompanied children have been transferred of the 480 placements identified."
Charity Help Refugees is seeking court orders to force Home Secretary Amber Rudd to abandon the 480 children cap and reopen the consultation process so that consideration can be given to allowing more children in.
Local authorities across the country are currently supporting more than 4,000 unaccompanied asylum seeking children, they said.
Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis responded: "We are committed to fulfilling our commitment under the Dubs scheme as soon as possible and ensuring that children arrive in the UK safely. This is just one aspect of a much wider response.
"We have committed to resettling 23,000 people directly from regions of conflict and last year we granted protection, or another form of leave, to over 8,000 children."
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