As someone who's mother arrived in Britain as a refugee, I feel passionately that we should do all we can to help child refugees in Europe today.

The Calais ‘jungle’ may be gone but there are still thousands of children alone and at risk in Europe, many of them have been orphaned or separated from family. In Greece and Italy unaccompanied children are sleeping rough and in makeshift camps because children's centres are full. Without access to safe and legal routes to sanctuary, these children are highly vulnerable to trafficking into exploitation and modern slavery.

Before the outbreak of the Second World War Britain rescued 10,000 Jewish children from Europe. Lord Alf Dubs was one of those children, travelling on a train from Prague at just 6 years old. Now he is leading efforts to help a new generation of child refugees who are alone and at risk in Europe through his fund for refugee children.

The Alf Dubs Children’s Fund is supporting work to help child refugees to access safe and legal routes to protection, and help them begin to rebuild their lives once they reach safety.

The fund is helping unaccompanied child refugees like Sami.

Sami is 14. When fighting reached his home in southern Syria he was forced to flee, making the dangerous journey to Lesvos to try and reach his surviving brother in the UK. There he waited months alone in a makeshift camp, wondering what to do next, before finally being identified by Safe Passage who are now helping him access his legal right to join his brother here in the UK.

The Alf Dubs Children's Fund is a fund established by Lord Alf Dubs to support the work of Citizens UK's Safe Passage project, an initiative that helps child refugees access safe and legal routes to sanctuary.  

So-far, 1,050 children have been brought to safety through routes Lord Dubs has opened with the work of Safe Passage. 

I am a member of Safe Passage's Advisory Board, along with the Bishop of Croydon, Rt. Rev Jonathan Clark and actress and campaigner Juliet Stevenson. We are supported in this vital work by Save the Children, Unicef UK and British Red Cross.

I will be most grateful for any contribution, large or small, that you feel able to make.