CAMPAIGNERS have called on Dorset County Council to take in at least three refugee children each year.

A deputation from the Safe Passage group made the plea 80 years on from the Kinder Transport, which saw the UK take in 10,000 refugees fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe.

Deputation leader Bernard Sullivan said the time had come again for the county to play its part.

The group is backed by faith groups and refugee support groups across the county.

Dorset has already started taking refugee children with the numbers so far running into double figures.

County councillors supported the plea, in principle, and told the group that they hoped the work which had already been started by the authority would be continued by the new Dorset Council when it starts work in April next year.

It will then be asked by the group to commit to resettling three at-risk refugee children every year for the next 10 years.

“If every local authority up and down the country commits to welcoming three child refugees every year, that will amount to 10,000 at-risk children welcomed to the UK – the same number we welcomed under the ‘Kinder Transport’,” said Mr Sullivan, from Bourton, near Gillingham.

Councillor Andrew Cattaway put forward a motion to back the aims of the group – which won unanimous cross-party support.