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Chapter 14 | Policy and Practice Recommendations Recommendations ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ 10.1 Every unaccompanied or separated child should be provided with a legal guardian to accompany him or her to any asylum interview. 10.2 In the absence of the appointment of a legal guardian, “responsible adults” should they have had the appropriate training and experience and should normally either be local authority social workers or key workers or advocates employed by a non-governmental organization working with unaccompanied or separated children. 10.3 Legal representatives should not be asked to “double” as a “responsible adult” as they have an important and distinct role to perform at the asylum interview. 10.4 The role of the legal guardian (or “responsible adult” in the absence of the appointment of a legal guardian) should be to ensure that the child’s best interests are met during the asylum interview. 10.5 Unaccompanied or separated children should always be provided with an independent interpreter at an interview to ensure the accuracy of interpretation provided by the Home Office and also to ensure that the child’s legal representative can remind the child of the function and format of the interview just before it takes place. It is also important to have an independent interpreter present to reassure the child or answer any questions he or she may have immediately after the interview finishes. 10.6 The Advisory Panel on Country Information should undertake an audit of all Country Information and Policy Unit reports in conjunction ■ ■ ■ ■ with the Refugee Children’s Consortium, to check their relevance and accuracy in relation to unaccompanied or separated children. 10.7 All Immigration and Nationality Directorate case workers should be provided with training and have to pass an accreditation exam equivalent to that set by the Law Society/Legal Services Commission in its Accreditation Scheme for legal representatives 40 before they can assess any application from an unaccompanied or separated child. 10.8 This accreditation should include a component specific to applications from unaccompanied or separated children, which should be devised after consultation with the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) and the Refugee Children’s Consortium and take into account recommendations already made by the UNHCR, 41 the Separated Children in Europe Programme 42 and ILPA. 43 10.9 Immigration and Nationality Directorate case workers should be obliged to seek expert evidence if the CIPU report in question does not contain sufficient objective evidence on which to adequately assess an application from an unaccompanied or separated child. 10.10 Case workers should not be required to decide 80% of applications from unaccompanied or separated children within two months. Instead they should be required to ensure that a decision is only taken once any age disputes have been resolved, any necessary expert evidence has been obtained, and the unaccompanied or separated child has had time to disclose as full an account as possible of his or her fear of persecution. Once this has been done, a one month target for deciding the application should be imposed. Hosted by www.ijjo.org 195
SEEKING ASYLUM ALONE | UNITED KINGDOM 196 Chapter 11 Outcomes of Asylum Applications Low success rate of asylum being granted without appeal Very few unaccompanied or separated children are granted asylum after an initial consideration by a case worker in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. Remarkably, despite children’s heightened protection needs, overall fewer children than adults are granted asylum. Family reunification Family reunification is a significant area of discrimination against unaccompanied or separated children granted refugee status. The Family Reunion policy for refugees does not apply to family members of unaccompanied or separated children. Their parents or siblings can apply for leave to enter but such an application is only likely to succeed in extremely compelling or compassionate circumstances. 44 The U.K. Government provides no justification for not granting unaccompanied or separated children the same right to family reunion with their immediate family as adults. Nor does it explain how this discrimination is in keeping with the spirit of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or the Principle of Family Unity, which does not distinguish between adult and minor refugees. Non-compliance based refusals Between 2002 and 2004, there were a “significant number” of refusals (9–11%) of children’s asylum applications based upon “non-compliance” grounds (failing to attend a screening interview or to complete or return a Children’s Statement of Evidence Form within 28 days). Prior refusals have an adverse effect during a subsequent appeal hearing, even when the initial failure is due to incompetence or inefficiency on the part of the legal representatives or local authority. More recently, the policy of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate is to only refuse applications on non-compliance grounds where an unaccompanied or separated child has “failed, without reasonable explanation, to make a Hosted by www.ijjo.org
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Unaccompanied and Separated Childre
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS Jacqueline Bhabha
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Manchester City Council; Sue Fisher
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Contents Chapter 1 | 9 Chapter 5 |
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SEEKING ASYLUM ALONE | UNITED KINGD
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Arriving in the U.K. 6 The Immigrat
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ers often believe that although a p
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fear of certain groups in society t
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that unaccompanied minor children f
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It then added that “although chil
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2004 it rose to 8.8%. This was at a
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2.3 Countries of Origin Unaccompani
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Recommendations ■ 1. If the U.K.
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There was no comparable age differe
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2.7 Private Fostering Arrangements
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Endnotes 9 Statistics published by
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unfounded, thus depriving this subs
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Bill in Parliament which would have
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of someone who might be an unaccomp
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It is clear that the Rules are a po
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subsequently abducted by their form
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“G” was a 16-year-old Christian
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■ 4. Article 4 of the European Co
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17 A multi-agency task force establ
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of the asylum determination process
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as a group around the claimant laug
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with as being hostile. Nor did they
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purposes. 38 The Immigration and Na
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or local authority social services
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als from age disputed children deta
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and February 2005 when 75% of those
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accommodation which is separated fr
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e safe to let the child go and live
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case, that adult is advised to info
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The official justification for thes
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Asylum Support Team has a case load
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days and a second review after thre
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provides access to rehabilitation a
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who the child must try to relate to
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adult in their life to speak on the
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8.3 Role of a Legal Guardian rights
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asylum application and monitor the
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do once I got to London. The pictur
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Some social services departments do
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■ 5. The screening interview shou
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eturn to a country requiring servic
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■ 6. The syllabus for the Accredi
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this research believe that it is no
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A recent White Paper 13 states that
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an important and distinct role to p
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for Determining Refugee Status. 30
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draws on a small number of other re
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■ 3. UNHCR also states that the q
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contact the child via social servic
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It is not possible to ascertain the
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leave to remain if it was unlikely
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“Unaccompanied children are not g
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5 IND. Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking
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Page 145 and 146: SEEKING ASYLUM ALONE | UNITED KINGD
Page 147 and 148: until they turn 18, whichever is th
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Page 153 and 154: could have been allowed. In one of
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Page 157 and 158: ■ 3. The Law Society and the Lega
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Page 161 and 162: 42 Interview with Laura Brownlees,
Page 165 and 166: should resolve this difficulty. The
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Page 175 and 176: Recommendations 14 Immigration Rule
Page 179 and 180: concern the plethora of evidence of
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Page 189 and 190: which would have provided for a leg
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Page 193 and 194: ■ 9.9 The interviewer should alwa
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Page 205 and 206: 22 Information provided by Ailish K
Page 207 and 208: A P P E N D I X 1 Glossary of Terms
Page 209 and 210: Bibliography Amnesty International.
Page 211 and 212: Immigration Advisory Service. Submi
Page 213 and 214: FOR MORE INFORMATION PHOTOGRAPHY CR
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