Oxford City Councillor Tom Hayes gives his view on the child refugee crisis.

OXFORD is furious and rightly so.

A programme to re-settle child refugees has just been binned and our city is outraged.

The Government has shut down this scheme after helping 10 per cent of the 3,000 children meant to reach safety.

Slamming the door shut strikes many as cold and wrong.

Oxford needs to be clear: the Government – not the public – is slamming that door and they’re doing it because their hearts – not ours – are hardening to children far from their families.

As my email inbox shows, Oxford and Britain are better than this decision.

We want the Government to change its mind and help the planet’s most vulnerable people.

It’s heart-warming to see Oxford’s outpouring of support for vulnerable people on the move.

Our communities all over the city always respond with tolerance when tested.

It’s so important for the city to keep making a compassionate case for helping refugees.

When there’s silence, others will fill it with hateful slogans that try to strip people like you and me of their humanity.

That’s why I’m pleased to stand with refugees alongside every councillor from every political party in the city.

For years campaigners have railed against immigration removal centre Campsfield House in Kidlington.

Hundreds protested on behalf of refugees during the last spike in the refugee crisis.

And Oxford’s residents have donated whatever they can and literally opened their homes to Syrian families.

At the start of their new life in Oxford, the Almaree family has been warming many hearts in the city with their stories of making new friends, and the other Syrian families are doing the same.

If there’s something to do to support refugees, Oxford has shown that it always steps up.

Which is why I’m hoping that we can do even more.

Something important is getting lost in this debate on the Government’s closure of the Dubs lifeline.

And you can help to correct this now.

The Government has misjudged the mood, but perversely this debate is going their way.

It’s right to urge the Government to honour its promise to bring 3,000 refugees to the UK.

However, this single focus isn’t part of a larger call for stronger action.

What about the many thousands of other refugees embarking on terrifying journeys to find sanctuary?

Before the Home Secretary’s announcement, the Prime Minister had been dragging her feet.

The Dubs scheme came into being because peers strong-armed ministers.

Himself a child refugee from the Nazis, Alf Dubs calls the Kindertransport the best of Britain.

The Kindertransport saved 10,000 lives from the Holocaust.

Today we’re fighting for safety for 3,000 refugees, who must be the floor to our ambition to help, not the ceiling.

Here in Oxford we have a counter-momentum of people speaking up for refugees.

Speaking up is so crucial for ending the rising tide of hostility towards people on the move.

It’s also key for urging our law-makers and leaders to respond with empathy to the displacement crisis when Government wants to pull back from helping people on the move. We can speak up now.

Please write to your MP and the Home Secretary and ask them to reinstate the Dubs scheme and increase the number of unaccompanied child refugees coming under that programme.

Hand writing takes more effort, but a letter in the post carries more weight than an email or a tweet.

Right now thousands are being forced to flee their homes by war and violence.

They’re sleeping in appalling conditions.

Confined to camps and the streets of cities, many will be cold, hungry, and scared. They need help.

With our future as an outward-looking people in the balance, I hope you can stand up for the planet’s most vulnerable people.