UK lawmakers remove child-migrants promise from Brexit bill

British lawmakers have overturned changes to the government's flagship Brexit bill made by Parliament's House of Lords, removing a promise to reunite child refugees with their families in the UK.

As the bill goes through its final stages before becoming law, the House of Commons on Wednesday removed five amendments inserted into the Withdrawal Agreement Bill by the unelected upper chamber.

Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union on January 31.

The Lords voted on Tuesday to demand that post-Brexit Britain continues to let unaccompanied migrant children in EU countries join relatives living in the UK.

The promise was made in 2018 by former British Prime Minister Theresa May, but it was removed from the Brexit legislation after Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives won a big parliamentary majority in an election last month.

Johnson's government says it intends to continue resettling child migrants in Britain after the country leaves the EU but argues that the issue does not belong in the EU withdrawal bill, which sets out the terms of Britain's departure from the 28-nation bloc.

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay said an agreement on taking in the children "is ultimately a matter which must be negotiated with the EU, and the government is committed to seeking the best possible outcome in those negotiations."