#ReuniteThem Petition
Petition to the Britishand French governments to allow the unaccompanied minors in Calais to legally join their families in the United Kingdom.
Today in the Calais region, more than 300 unaccompanied minors are ready to risk their lives to make the journey into the United Kingdom. After fleeing their countries and crossing thousands of kilometres from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea or Egypt, they are so close to their goal that nothing will stop them. Across the Channel, their families are waiting for them. These children often live in deplorable conditions and are faced with many dangers. Urgent action is needed to ensure their protection and their future.
These children, who are alone and particularly vulnerable, should be able to reach their homes without having to risk their lives in a tunnel or under the wheels of a lorry. They should be able to escape misery, violence and criminal networks and reach their families as quickly and as safely as possible. It is their families that can protect and support these children, and ensure that they have a future.sd
Unaccompanied children and their close relatives should be able to live together.
Following the rallying of citizens and political figures, the United Kingdom and France announced that they wish to facilitate family reunification from Calais in accordance with the Dublin III Regulation. But the commitment from France and the UK is still too fragile for that right to become effective and for it to represent a first step towards opening legal migration channels for unaccompanied minors in Europe.
We therefore ask the British and French governments to undertake to:
- Facilitate the family reunification procedure for all unaccompanied minors with close relatives in the United Kingdom
- Maintain this safe and legal route so as to protect it from risks and political circumstances
Together, good-willed citizens of France and Britain, let us reunite these children with their families. Let us savetheir futures.
Pierre HENRY
First signatories :
France terre d’asile, Asylum Aid, British Refugee Council, French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT, Union), European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), Independent and Democratic Federation of High school students (FIDL), National Federation of Reception and Social Reintegration Organisations (FNARS), Forum Réfugiés-Cosi, SOS Racisme, National inter-federal union of private, health and social projects and organisations (Uniopss), Unicef France.
Jacqueline BENASSAYAG (Secretary of France terre d’asile), Erwan BINET (MP), Jacqueline COSTA-LASCOUX (Director of research at CNRS), Paulette DECRAENE ( Board member of France terre d’asile ), Patrick DOUTRELIGNE (President of Uniopss), Cécile DUFLOT (MP), Olivier FAVIER (Journalist), Daniel GOLDBERG (MP), Jean-Luc GONNEAU (Treasurer of France terre d’asile), Romain GOUPIL (Fillmmaker), Florent GUÉGUEN (General Director of FNARS), Sylvie GUILLAUME (MEP, Vice-president of the European Parliament), Zoïa GUSCHLBAUER (President of FIDL), Pierre HENRY (General Director of France terre d’asile), Alain LE CLEAC’H (President of France terre d’asile), Sandrine MAZETIER (MP, Vice-president of the French Parliament), Jean François PLOQUIN (General Director of Forum Réfugiés-Cosi), Nicole QUESTIAUX (Former Minister, honorary member of the Council of State), Jacques RIBS (Honorary President of France terre d'asile), Dominique SOPO (President of SOS Racisme), Benjamin STORA (Historian, President of the Steering Board of the French Museum of the History of Migration), Frédéric TIBERGHIEN (Board member of France terre d’asile), Patrick WEIL (Director of research at CNRS), Catherine WITHOL DE WENDEN (Director of research at CNRS et Doctor in Political Sciences at Sciences Po Paris).