A CHARITY is confident Redbridge will keep its promise to find homes for more refugee children after a meeting with local politicians last week.

In May this year MPs voted in a piece of legislation called the Dubs Amendment, which requires the UK to accommodate 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children in an attempt to solve Europe’s growing refugee crisis.

Citizens UK is working with Redbridge Council and others across the country to find homes for their fair share of the 95,000 parentless refugee children currently in Europe.

But after a meeting at Saint Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Church in Woodford Green last week, attended by Redbridge council leader Cllr Jas Athwal and London Assembly Member Keith Prince, the charity is confident about its fight to find homes for refugee children in the borough.

Daniel Mackintosh of Redbridge Citizens said: “Our job is to make sure Redbridge plays its part in keeping the promises made in the Dubs Amendment.

“We are very pleased Cllr Athwal has agreed to help push the London Asylum Seekers Consortium (LASC) to get more refugee children resettled in Redbridge.

“We believe there are enough foster families and school places in the borough to accommodate at least five refugee children.

“Redbridge is currently not meeting its child refugee obligations, so we’re looking forward to working with the council to make sure something is done about it.”

Robert Parker of Saint Thomas’ Church, one of Citizens Redbridge partners, was thrilled with the results of last Wednesday’s (July 13) meeting.

He said: “This is what winning justice looks like - Redbridge Citizens and its friends and allies have been building pressure around this campaign for over two years.

“While we sometimes feel overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis, relocating a few children is a small meaningful contribution we can make.

“If every council in the country took five refugee children, we would be able to provide 3000 young people with a safe home across the UK.”

While five children is the initial target intake for Redbridge, the charity wants to explore the possibility of even more children being fostered in Redbridge.

Mr Mackintosh added: “Five is our minimum, but we don’t want it to become the maximum.

“We want the council to commit to taking as many children as it can.”

Cllr Athwal said: "While I can’t commit further numbers at this stage, we are working to house as many children as possible in the borough in safe and loving homes.

"We’ve already taken around 25 children previously through the Pan London agreement and we expect that this number will rise over the coming months.”