Dorset Safe Passage is backing the Our Turn initiative

The campaign, led by Lord Alf Dubs, commemorates the 80th anniversary of the Kindertransport which over a period of just 10 months between 1938 and 1939, rescued 10,000 refugee children at risk from Nazi persecution. Through the generosity of the British people, these children were brought to the UK and provided with safe homes, ultimately saving their lives.

Dorset Safe Passage believes that 80 years on, Dorset has the capability and willpower to do the same and welcome vulnerable child refugees just like we have done in the past. The Dorset Safe Passage campaign is asking respective local authorities to pledge just 3 spaces for at-risk refugee children over the next 10 years and has already received encouragement and unanimous support from Dorset County Council and Poole Borough Council. Now the team are looking to get pledges from the new unitary authorities forming in Spring this year.

If every local authority up and down the country pledged 3 spaces per year for the next 10 years, this would equate to 10,000 children over the next 10 years - the same number the UK welcomed on the Kindertransport in a matter of just 10 months.

These children would be brought to the UK in a fully funded government scheme and by safe and legal routes, rather than being forced to take extremely perilous journeys, vulnerable to sexual exploitation, forced labour and trafficking. Their welfare would not deplete local council funding.

To assist our new unitary councils to make the pledges we seek, and in support of our existing councils, Safe Passage Dorset are appealing to potential and existing foster carers, (and to those with a spare room for providing supported lodgings for a child aged 16+), to consider supporting both British or refugee children in desperate need. Those willing to explore either option should contact their local council’s Children's Services department via the links provided in the accompanying attachments.