Refugee children to be welcomed to Scotland

A plane carrying unaccompanied child refugees is due to touch down in Glasgow tomorrow.

Scotland has welcomed more than 1,000 refugees in recent months.

The group of refugees are among the several hundred children to be welcomed by the UK after The Jungle camp was dismantled in Calais. It is not known which Scottish local authorities will house the youngsters.

The refugees are in addition to the 200 children who had already arrived in the UK - which included 60 girls, many of whom were deemed to be at risk of sexual exploitation.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The First Minister confirmed last month that Scotland wanted to and was ready to offer a place of refuge to vulnerable unaccompanied children who, through no fault of their own, have found themselves displaced and separated from their families and homes.

“We expect the first children to arrive in Scotland this week. The Scottish Government continues to work closely with CoSLA on this. And we would urge people to respect the privacy of these extremely vulnerable children at this time.”

In September, Scotland welcomed its 1,000th Syrian refugee - taking in many more people than other areas of the UK, including London boroughs.

Thousands of migrants were bussed away from the Jungle camp, which was cleared last month by the French authorities.