Home Secretary Theresa May is coming under pressure to speed up the relocation of child refugees, following a petition from a 16-year-old Syrian boy.

Bilal* fled the war in Syria in January last year after his home city of Daraa was bombed.

He travelled via boat from Turkey, and then from Greece to Calais – where he spent seven months in the Jungle.

Refugee: Bilal spent seven months in the Calais jungle on his way to the UK

Writing on his Change.org petition, Bilal said:  “I saw a lot of violence. Every day people would try to find ways of leaving. Two of my friends died under trains.”

Bilal, who is now living with his brother in the UK, is asking the Home Secretary to allocate more government resources to helping reunite refugee children with their families in the UK.

He added: “Children in Europe who are fleeing war have a legal right to be reunited with their families – but it’s not happening fast enough and children are still stuck in camps like I was.

Plea: Bilal is asking the Home Secretary to allocate more government resources to helping reunite refugee children with their families

“If the Home Office had 10 more staff working on this – children could be reunited with their families in time to start school in September.”

* Bilal is writing under a pseudonym for safety reasons

To read more about this campaign, pictures or quotes, go to Change.org/Bilal or email press.uk@change.org