Caring council
Sir: Your report last week (innocents abroad', 8 September) draws attention to the influx of Eritrean refugee children and quotes Mary Dines, from the organisation Rights and Justice, as saying that London councils have been slow to take up their statutory responsibilities, including Cam- den.
Camden has 35 Eritrean children in the council's care, and has been responsive notwithstanding pressures on our child care resources and financial constraints from 'poll-tax capping'. Local authorities are doing what they can, but your report fails to question the role of central govern- ment, both Home Office and the Depart- ment of Health. Where is government recognition of the needs of unaccompanied Eritrean refugee children entering the country; where is the co-ordination and support to local authorities? The slowness of central government to accept their responsibilities and to act in this matter is, I would suggest, greater cause for concern.
Ken Dixon
Director of Social Services, London Borough of Camden, 356 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1
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