READER’S LETTER: Mothers’ plea to Eastbourne MP to help children of Ukraine

Open letter to Eastbourne MP Caroline Ansell:

We have all watched in horror the distressing reports of the war in Ukraine, including the barbaric bombing of the maternity hospital in Mariupol. No mother, anywhere in the world, can watch this and not feel her heart break.

Seeing terrified Ukrainian children fleeing their homeland in freezing conditions, we cannot help but think of our own sons and daughters.

How would we comfort them? How would we explain that they must leave their home, school, friends, family members, and all that they’ve known? And not know when or if they can ever return.

How would we explain that we must do this because someone they’ve never met is bombing their homeland to take it for himself?

What innocent Ukrainians are being subjected to is indescribably horrific. The choice between staying to face indiscriminate bombing, or leaving your life behind, is not one anyone should have to make – let alone having to make that choice for your child.

Ukrainian refugees are in desperate need of help. Yet your Government is doing shamefully little to offer shelter to mothers and children fleeing this cruel war.

Other countries have opened their borders and hearts to welcome those fleeing the atrocities. Yet your Conservative Government is enforcing complex visa restrictions and biometric testing – sending families with a right to come to the UK from pillar to post.

Priti Patel has shown a disturbing lack of compassion and failed to make preparations to help desperate refugees, despite receiving repeated warnings that war was imminent.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has failed to live up to the Blitz Spirit he often quotes, by not doing everything possible to help innocent Ukrainians. The Government shames our proud British history of helping refugees.

During the Blitz, British mothers welcomed children evacuated from bombarded cities into their homes. Mothers were also crucial to the success of the Kindertransport, helping to save the lives of more than 10,000 Jewish children in the run up to Second World War. In the spirit of these heroic mothers, we want to do all we can to help Ukrainian mothers and children.

Mrs Ansell, we are calling on you to put pressure on your party and Government to do more to help and welcome refugee mothers and children to the UK! We are asking you, from mothers to mother, to do the right thing.

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