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Just before the Second World War Britain took 10,000 unaccompanied­ child refugees from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. I was one.

My mother wasn’t Jewish but my father was and he left us as soon as the Germans occupied Prague in March 1939.

He had previously said to his cousins that if the Nazis came he would be gone. They said they’d take their chance and in 1942 the Gestapo came for them.

I was only six-years-old but I remember having to tear out a picture of President Benes and replace it with one of Adolf Hitler in my school books, and there were lots of German soldiers everywhere.

My mother, refused permission to leave, put me on the Kindertransport, trains which brought thousands­ of children to Britain.

She put sandwiches in a box for me but I didn’t touch them the whole journey. I think I was a bit traumatised by the whole thing.

I can still see my mother on the platform­ surrounded by other anxious parents. In the background, a German soldier with a swastika.

It was an interminable journey and I remember the hard wooden seats. We got to the Dutch border and the older ones cheered as we were out of the reach of the Nazis.

(Image: Elliott Franks)

I was lucky my father met me at Liverpool Street Station – but most children didn’t have anyone to meet them.

Britain took in and saved those 10,000 children when other countries weren’t doing anything.

Last year I fought hard for Britain to be a saviour again, with today’s young people who need our help.

This time it is not victims of the Nazis but Syrian children who are alone and vulnerable after fleeing their devastating conflict.

Despite resistance from then Premier David Cameron, the Government agreed to work with charities and welcome unaccompanied Syrian child refugees to Britain, if they had arrived in Europe before a March deadline.

After months of campaigning and setbacks, we believed an amendment to the Immigration Act 2016 would mean as many as 3,000 youngsters could be given a new, safe life here in Britain.

Suddenly they have said the door is shut.

I asked in the House of Lords why the Government has decided to close the scheme for unaccompanied child refugees.

Their response was that the scheme hasn’t closed – they have taken in 200 children and plan to take another 150.

But once the 350 are here the scheme is effectively finished – and 350 is a drop in the ocean compared to the need. There were 90,000 refugee children stuck in Europe without parents.

(Image: PA)

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I had an easy journey in the sense that I was on a train. Most of the child refugees in 2017 have had desperate journeys.

Many of them have seen their parents killed by bombs in Damascus or Aleppo and experienced a terrifying time.

It has taken months for them to cross Europe, only to get to somewhere like Calais or the dreadful Greek refugee camps.

I was in Greece about a month ago and the conditions are appalling. It is bitterly cold and there are about 2,000 unaccompanied­ children there.

Their one hope was a new life in Britain, a country that always had, until now, a worldwide reputation for welcoming those most in need.

So I am utterly dismayed the Government is now refusing to help, to save any more child refugees.

It is bitterly disappointing for the children that might have come here, and a breach of the Government’s original undertaking.

As the legislation was discussed last year, Theresa May, then Home Secretary, said we propose to accept your amendment.

Immigration­ Minister James Brokenshire said: “We have a moral duty to help”, and told me we intend to accept the letter and spirit of your amendment.

Well, they haven’t done that. Instead they have backed off in a big way and turned their backs on these vulnerable children.

There was nothing in the amendment­ about a limit on numbers, there was no time limit.

Now Home Secretary Amber Rudd has suggested the scheme “acts as a pull” for children to head here and encourages­ traffickers.

I disagree it increases the risk of trafficking. Firstly, the Government themselves said the cut-off point would be March last year so any child refugees accepted on the scheme had to be in Europe by then.

Also, if we don’t give them a legal route to Britain, traffickers will have even more business to find illegal routes for child refugees.

Trafficking is a vile crime, but I don’t think you will stamp it out by encouraging people to come here illegally.

(Image: PA)

Saying local authorities simply cannot take any more child refugees is weak too.

I know of local authorities­ willing to be considered for more refugees.

And if the Government had difficulty in finding enough quickly, they should have said they will keep the scheme going at the speed authorities can have children fostered or cared for.

The Government is using this as a very shabby excuse.

Obviously other countries should do something as well, but we have an amendment, we have it in the Immigration Act, and we should step up to the mark.

The Government is going against parliamentary, and public, opinion. It is also going against Britain’s humanitarian traditions.

It is very sad the Government has decided to do this. And I really don’t understand why.

So I hope the combination of parliamentary pressure, political pressure and public opinion will make the Government reconsider.