London: A first busload of teenagers arrived in Britain on Monday from the "Jungle" camp near the French port of Calais as the British government started to act on its commitment to take in unaccompanied migrant children before the camp is destroyed.
The fate of children staying in the Jungle, a squalid camp where up to 10,000 people fleeing war or poverty in the Middle East and Africa have converged seeking ways to cross to Britain, has been a political problem for the British government.
![A young migrant waves as leaves the headquarters of UK Visas and Immigration in Croydon, south London, on Monday.](/web/20161114104533im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/4/r/g/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs4ra0.png/1476759207958.jpg)
Religious leaders, refugee rights campaign groups and opposition parties have accused the government of dragging its heels on helping to move unaccompanied children out of the camp, which France has said it will soon demolish.
Fourteen children, the first whose cases have been processed, arrived by bus in Croydon, south London, to be reunited with relatives already living in Britain. Faith leaders and aid workers were on hand to welcome and assist them.
![Jan Ghazi, right, greets his brother Haris, centre, as he arrived in Croydon from the Calais Jungle camp.](/web/20161114104533im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/4/r/g/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs4ra0.png/1476759207958.jpg)
"The camp at Calais is a desperate, dangerous, horrible place, nowhere any adult should be, let alone any child," said Bishop of Croydon Jonathan Clark.
"So this is a really good day to celebrate as some of those children begin to make their journeys to be reunited with their families," he told reporters outside a Croydon church.
Some British MPs, however, warned that photographs of the refugees suggested many of the group were older than 17.
David Davies, the Conservative MP for Monmouth, feared "British hospitality is being abused" and called for dental tests to be used to verify ages.
![Jan Ghazi, (out of shot) greets his brother Haris (centre) as he arrived in Croydon.](/web/20161114104533im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/4/r/g/d/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs4ra0.png/1476858241465.jpg)
"These young men don't look like minors to me. They are hulking teenagers who look older than 18. I'm all for helping the genuine children, but the well of goodwill is rapidly being exhausted here," Mr Davies said.
The French and British interior ministers, Bernard Cazeneuve and Amber Rudd, agreed in talks on October 10 to speed up the process of moving children eligible to go to Britain out of the Jungle.
![Two unidentified young migrants get off a bus in Croydon, south London on Monday.](/web/20161114104533im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/4/r/g/4/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs4ra0.png/1476759207958.jpg)
It is not known exactly how many children will be brought to Britain. The British interior ministry has said 80 children had been accepted for transfer from France so far this year under EU family reunification rules known as the Dublin regulation.
Home Office documents say if a refugee does not have a birth certificate, a screening officer can certify them as a child based on "physical appearance" or "demeanour". The document states that refugees "should be treated as an adult if their physical appearance/demeanour very strongly suggests that they are significantly over 18 years of age".
![An aerial view of a makeshift migrant camp near Calais, France. The French government is gradually deporting migrants ...](/web/20161114104533im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/4/r/i/1/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs4ra0.png/1476759207958.jpg)
However, it says that "all other applicants should be afforded the benefit of the doubt and treated as children".
The guide adds: "All available sources of relevant information and evidence should be considered, since no single assessment technique, or combination of techniques, is likely to determine the applicant's age with precision."
![Two unidentified young migrants, front right and back right, get off a bus in south London on Monday.](/web/20161114104533im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/4/r/g/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs4ra0.png/1476832325790.jpg)
The refugees who arrived on Monday came from countries including Syria, Afghanistan and Kuwait. Afghanistan started using birth certificates in 2007.
The Red Cross estimates that 1000 unaccompanied children are living in the Jungle, of whom 178 have been identified as having family ties to Britain. It has said some of them have been held back by bureaucracy.
Separately from the Dublin process, Britain has sent out a team to work with the French authorities to identify children who can be brought to Britain under the terms of a change to British immigration law known as the Dubs amendment.
It states that Britain will take in "vulnerable unaccompanied child refugees" who arrived in the EU before March 20, even if they do not have relatives in Britain.
March 20 was date of an EU-Turkey deal aimed at limiting the flow of migrants into the bloc, which reached crisis levels in 2015.
The Dubs amendment is named after the politician who proposed it, Alf Dubs, who came to Britain as a Jewish child refugee fleeing Nazi persecution.
Reuters; Telegraph, London
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