Tory MP visits families in Lesbos... now everything she believed about refugees has changed

Take more refugee children from Europe, Tory MPs tell David Cameron after mission to Lesbos

Exclusive: Three Tory MPs report back to the Home Office after travelling to the Greek islands. Heidi Allen tells The Independent: 'I was prepared to be upset – I wasn’t prepared for the sheer scale'

• Adam Withnall
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Conservative MP Heidi Allen looks at life jackets used by refugees aboard a boat in Mytilene harbour, on the Greek island of Lesbos (Save The Children)

A group of Tory MPs have urged David Cameron to consider taking more refugee children from within Europe after seeing the desperate situation on the Greek islands.
The three MPs met with immigration minister James Brokenshire following a fact-finding mission to Lesbos, where up to 6,000 asylum-seekers arrive from Turkey every day to squalid conditions and total administrative chaos.
The Prime Minister rejected calls last week from charities to take in 3,000 unaccompanied children who had already arrived in Greece and Italy, saying Britain would focus its efforts on Syria and other conflict zones.

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The Independent can reveal that he now faces growing pressure to reconsider that approach from his own MPs, who reported back to Government with their findings last night.
Heidi Allen, the MP for South Cambridgeshire, Caroline Ansell, the member for Eastbourne and Jo Churchill for Bury St Edmunds were taken out to Lesbos by Save The Children, one of the main charities providing relief to the thousands of refugees as they arrive on the island.
The three MPs, all new from the 2015 intake, were called in for a briefing by Mr Brokenshire before they left on the trip to be “filled in on the Government’s strategy” for the region.
But Ms Allen said that after seeing “the discarded life jackets, the broken ships and battered limbs” of people arriving in Lesbos, she would “bang every drum” to get the Government to do more for genuine asylum-seekers within Europe’s borders.

Ms Allen said she has seen people arriving 'battered and bruised' on Lesbos, and 37 people drowned the night the MPs were there

Speaking to this newspaper, she acknowledged Mr Cameron’s concerns about the “pull factor” of providing help to people who have made the journey to Europe themselves – possibly encouraging more to do so.
She nonetheless said: “I defy any country, and I would drag them to the table myself if I have to, if we identify however-many thousands of unaccompanied children who genuinely have not a soul in the world [not to do more to help them].
“We will find homes for them,” she said.

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Save The Children say around 26-27,000 unaccompanied children turned up on Europe’s shores last year – but admit that this is just a best guess because of failures processing new arrivals.
And Ms Allen welcomed the Government’s pledge of an extra £10 million to help improve administration on Lesbos.
“At the moment the difficult position is we just don’t know how many [unaccompanied children] there are,” she said. “And the faster we can process these people, the faster we can find out whether they do have true refugee status, then the faster we can work out how to help them and identify those children.”

‘I was prepared to be upset – I wasn’t prepared for the sheer scale’

Conservative MP Heidi Allen plays with Syrian refugees during a visit to Lesbos, Greece (Matt Crossick/Save The Children)

Ms Allen said she agreed to the trip with Save The Children when she had a “gut instinct we should be doing more”, without a clear idea of what that would mean.
She says she was told of the need to “relieve the administrative pressure”, and even “wondered whether there could be a military operation… with people turning up on an island met by men in green uniforms”.
“We have seen such uncontrolled immigration, and countries risk losing their compassion because they are overwhelmed,” she said. “It seems to me if you are a person looking at the statistics and infrastructure you will be terrified and batten down the hatches and say no more.”

Ms Allen meets a family from Syria inside the Kara Tepe refugee camp (Matt Crossick/Save The Children)

Ms Allen said she had “been privileged to lead a beautifully sheltered life” and, up until last week, had never met anyone “who had gone through this”.
When the MPs were there, though, they saw the boats people arrive in, helped distribute supplies and sat down with men, women and children who had fled from conflict.
 “I was prepared to be upset by it all – I wasn’t prepared for the sheer scale,” she said.

Jo Churchill holds a baby during the visit (Matt Crossick/Save The Children)

“I’ll never forget the sight of a woman slightly younger than me, walking along with her two little children and barely able to open her eyes because her face was so obliterated by black eyes and bruising.
“And she didn't need to say a word, at a glimpse she told you exactly where she’s come from. It was absolutely heartbreaking, and I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”

'We need to step up'

Ms Allen said she was proud Britain had pledged to take in 20,000 refugees, as well as being “second only to America” in the amount it has contributed towards solving the crisis financially.
But she said she would also press the Government to do more for unaccompanied children in Europe and called on Europe as a whole to address the administrative issues preventing them from being identified.

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She is hoping to go to Italy next with Save The Children, where the authorities have a better grasp on who arrivals are and where they have come from.
“If I do get to Italy and I see there are unaccompanied children who have been identified, then I will be pushing hard [on the Government] because I feel that we do need to step up and take some of them,” she said.
“As the situation evolves and we get better at identifying children, I think there should be a review of that 20,000 figure,” she said. “I think that should be fluid.”

'A proud history of offering safe havens to children'

Ms Allen said her own rural constituency of South Cambridgeshire had not been called upon to take refugees yet as part of the 20,000 pledge, and said there were “great reservations” in the area about how people would be integrated into the community.
But having seen the situation in Lesbos, she said she would “want us to try” and do more if called upon by the Home Office.
“We are extremely rural with very poor public transport links, so for the most part they would be stuck in the middle of nowhere and I don’t think that would be helpful.
“But I’ve had lots of people volunteering, and we would look to try and do something in the villages [near the city of Cambridge] where it might work.”

Caroline Ansell chats to a Syrian refugee in Save the Children's Child Friendly Space at Kara Tepe (Matt Crossick/Save The Children)

Speaking after the MPs’ trip, Save The Children’s Kitty Arie told the Huffington Post: “We’ve all seen the frequent reports of families with children drowning off the coast of Greece.
“Britain has a proud history of offering a safe haven to the most vulnerable children – now we need to see that in action once again.”
Ms Ansell told the Telegraph she had been struck by the personal stories the MPs heard while on the island, as well as the “vast scale” of the humanitarian effort required.
She said more should be done to target the funding provided by Britain and the international community. “We have to make sure the funds are getting to the front line as quickly as possible,” she said.
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