The now-closed scheme to rehouse child refugees was 'encouraging' people traffickers, says Minister

Labour said the government had 'slammed shut' the door on the world's most vulnerable people

3,000 unaccompanied children principally from the Calais camps were anticipated to be granted the right to settle in the UK (Getty)

A minister has claimed the government ended its resettlement scheme for child refugees because it was incentivising people to take dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean.

The government was intensely criticised when it announced two weeks ago that it would be closing its scheme, brought in under via the Dubs Amendment, having provided homes for 350 unaccompanied child refugees, far below the 3,000 indicated by government sources.

Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill told the House of Commons: "The whole point of the Government's approach is to help people in the region to prevent them making that perilous journey.

"In the majority of cases these aren't orphan children, these are children whose parents are sending them forward into a very hazardous journey.

"And indeed, one looks at the mortality in the Mediterranean where those children make that journey, pull factors - I've got to say - encourage people to make those journeys and many people sadly end in a watery grave."

Labour’s Alison McGovern said the government had “slammed shut” the door on the world’s most vulnerable children.

The Dubs Amendment was introduced in the House of Lords by Alfred Dubs, a Czech Jew whose family fled to Britain in the 1930s.