Comedian Dom Joly has staged a protest outside Parliament against the impact the Government’s controversial migration laws could have on child refugees, saying: “Whatever your views on immigration, children are innocent.”
The comic and Save The Children ambassador led the charity’s protest on Monday morning dressed as Mickey Mouse after ministers faced criticism for the decision to paint over murals of cartoon characters at an asylum seeker reception centre in England.
It comes as the Government is currently in a stand-off with the House of Lords about the Illegal Migration Bill as members want further concessions including limits to the detention of children.
Reflecting on the decision to paint over the murals, he told the PA news agency: “It just seems such an inhumane thing to do.
“A lot of child refugees, one of the first things they see when they come to this country is something like that, which gives them a vague feeling that they’re welcomed, and taking those down, it’s a spiteful, nasty thing to do.
“So, we’ve taken the mouse and we’ve stood outside the Home Office, and now we’re outside Parliament, just trying to make the point that this is just not the way forward.”
While appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last Friday, immigration minister Robert Jenrick insisted the decision to paint over murals was made because the decoration was not “age appropriate”.
Joly, who grew up in Beirut during Lebanon’s civil war, recently visited the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv and surrounding villages to report on the impact the war is having on children mentally and physically.
He said: “Having just been to Ukraine, I’ve seen why people need to flee areas and why they do become refugees, they become displaced people and when they do they need to be treated humanely and not detained.
“The Government definitely needs to treat children as children and not as some sort of political pawn or criminal.
“A child is a child, it needs to be looked after, it needs to be kept with its family, it needs to be given education…
“They need not to be detained and they need to be kept in a safe environment which allows them to have a childhood.”
He added: “I’d say whatever your views on immigration, children are innocent, children have not chosen to be in this situation, children have not got views on this.”
The comedian said he is staging the protest to encourage the Government to do the “decent thing” and vote to stop the the Bill or changes its polices in relation to children.
Ministers insist the Bill is integral to efforts to tackle small boats crossings in the English Channel.
There have been concerns from various charities and medical organisations over the potential treatment of migrant children under the Bill.
