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Chapter 2 | Unaccompanied or Separated Children Arriving in the United Kingdom able to assist the unaccompanied or separated child to provide an account of past persecution and also assist the Secretary of State for the Home Department to understand the reason the child feared future persecution. They would also have had the emotional support to deal more successfully with the stresses inherent in the asylum determination process itself. Some local authorities do take action to protect children from such potentially abusive situations. For example, Sheffield City Council’s Asylum Team have adopted a written procedure 5 for checking that adults offering to care for unaccompanied or separated children are related to them as claimed and that the unaccompanied or separated child would be safe in their care. Unaccompanied or separated children are not even placed in the care of relatives until a full fostering assessment designed to establish their suitability had been carried out. Compliance With International Standards ■ 1. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment No. 6 (2005) on Treatment of unaccompanied and separated children outside their country of origin defines unaccompanied children as children “who have been separated from both parents and other relatives and are not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is responsible for doing so.” (III, 7) Recommendations ■ 1. The definition of an unaccompanied or separated child used by the Immigration Service and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate should be uniform and should accurately reflect the legal significance of a child being separated from his or her parents or legal or customary caregivers. ■ 2. Any child who is not accompanied by a parent or a legal or customary caregiver should be treated as an unaccompanied or separated child when applying for asylum and any policies relating to discretionary leave for unaccompanied or separated children should be applied even if he or she is living with other relatives or adults. 2.2 Statistical Data An unremarked upon fact about U.K. asylum flows is that a significant minority of those claiming asylum in the U.K. are unaccompanied or separated children. 6 In 2002, 7.3% of new asylum applications were from unaccompanied or separated children. In 2003, this number decreased to 6.4%, but in Hosted by www.ijjo.org 21
2004 it rose to 8.8%. This was at a time when the overall number of applications for asylum made in the U.K. was falling. Applications for Asylum in the U.K. by Unaccompanied and Separated Children 11 Most of the following statistics were collected and published by the Research, Development and Statistics Directorate of the Home Office. Some of Applications for Asylum in the U.K. by Unaccompanied and Separated Children * Refugee Council Referrals ** the more detailed information for 2002–2004 was derived from statistics presented by the Immigra- YEAR tion and Nationality Directorate at meetings of the Unaccompanied Minor Asylum Seeking Children’s Stakeholder Group. 7 These statistics exclude unaccompanied or separated children who had been age disputed unless they were specifically referred to. 1998 3,037 N/A 1999 3,347 4,406 2000 2,733 The quality of these statistics and the fact that 4,118 they addressed the need to distinguish between different age groups and between gender greatly assisted our research and should be seen as a model of good practice. 2001 3,470 5,005 2002 6,200 6,513 SEEKING ASYLUM ALONE | UNITED KINGDOM 22 As can be seen from the annual figures for applications from unaccompanied or separated children up until 2002, the statistics collected and published by the Home Office were incomplete. The fact that it was not collecting statistics from local enforcement offices and for postal applications 8 probably led to a significant under estimation of numbers, as other statistics 9 indicate that a large percentage of unaccompanied or separated children applied for asylum after arriving in the U.K. rather than at a port of entry. The figures for the years before 2002 can be corrected in part by reference to the statistics collected by the Refugee Council’s Children’s Panel during the same period. These seem to be broadly accurate as in 2002, the first year for which the Home Office had comprehensive statistics, the figures produced by the Panel were very close to the official figures. 10 2003 2,800 4,658 2004 2,755 3,867 * Statistics for 1998 to 2001 include applications at Home Office and ports of entry. Statistics for 2002 to 2004 include Asylum Screening Units, ports of entry, most local enforcement offices, and postal applications. ** Statistics provided by the Refugee Council’s Children’s Panel. The figures for 2003 and 2004 show a significant variation between the statistics being released by the Home Office and the numbers of applications being recorded by the Refugee Council. To a large extent Hosted by www.ijjo.org
Page 1 and 2: Unaccompanied and Separated Childre
Page 3 and 4: ABOUT THE AUTHORS Jacqueline Bhabha
Page 5 and 6: Manchester City Council; Sue Fisher
Page 7 and 8: Contents Chapter 1 | 9 Chapter 5 |
Page 9 and 10: SEEKING ASYLUM ALONE | UNITED KINGD
Page 11 and 12: Arriving in the U.K. 6 The Immigrat
Page 13 and 14: ers often believe that although a p
Page 15 and 16: fear of certain groups in society t
Page 17 and 18: that unaccompanied minor children f
Page 21: It then added that “although chil
Page 25 and 26: 2.3 Countries of Origin Unaccompani
Page 27 and 28: Recommendations ■ 1. If the U.K.
Page 29 and 30: There was no comparable age differe
Page 31 and 32: 2.7 Private Fostering Arrangements
Page 33 and 34: Endnotes 9 Statistics published by
Page 37 and 38: unfounded, thus depriving this subs
Page 39 and 40: Bill in Parliament which would have
Page 43 and 44: of someone who might be an unaccomp
Page 45 and 46: It is clear that the Rules are a po
Page 47 and 48: subsequently abducted by their form
Page 49 and 50: “G” was a 16-year-old Christian
Page 51 and 52: ■ 4. Article 4 of the European Co
Page 53 and 54: 17 A multi-agency task force establ
Page 57 and 58: of the asylum determination process
Page 59 and 60: as a group around the claimant laug
Page 61 and 62: with as being hostile. Nor did they
Page 63 and 64: purposes. 38 The Immigration and Na
Page 65 and 66: or local authority social services
Page 69 and 70: als from age disputed children deta
Page 71 and 72: and February 2005 when 75% of those
Page 73 and 74:
accommodation which is separated fr
Page 75 and 76:
e safe to let the child go and live
Page 77 and 78:
SEEKING ASYLUM ALONE | UNITED KINGD
Page 79 and 80:
case, that adult is advised to info
Page 81 and 82:
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
Page 87 and 88:
provides access to rehabilitation a
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
who the child must try to relate to
Page 93 and 94:
adult in their life to speak on the
Page 95 and 96:
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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until they turn 18, whichever is th
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“There are some exceptionally goo
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could have been allowed. In one of
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esisting removal to their countries
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■ 3. The Law Society and the Lega
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determinations we analyzed this did
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42 Interview with Laura Brownlees,
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should resolve this difficulty. The
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A number of legal representatives b
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Department at appeals by unaccompan
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Basis Upon Which Appeals Were Allow
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Basis Upon Which Appeals Were Allow
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Recommendations 14 Immigration Rule
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concern the plethora of evidence of
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As a consequence of these restricti
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■ ■ accommodate unaccompanied o
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that the vast majority of referrals
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ecause of long waiting lists and be
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which would have provided for a leg
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screening interview and do not real
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■ 9.9 The interviewer should alwa
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excessive delay in reaching a decis
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children, or anyone who had been re
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appeal. The Asylum Policy Unit has
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and adjudicators rarely prevented t
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22 Information provided by Ailish K
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A P P E N D I X 1 Glossary of Terms
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Bibliography Amnesty International.
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Immigration Advisory Service. Submi
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FOR MORE INFORMATION PHOTOGRAPHY CR
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