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Chapter 2 | Unaccompanied or Separated Children Arriving in the United Kingdom Top Ten Countries of Origin, April to June 2004 All Asylum Seekers 1 Iran 685 2 China 595 3 Somalia 540 4 Zimbabwe 505 5 Pakistan 475 6 Iraq 410 7 Afghanistan 355 8 India 310 9 DRC 300 10 Sudan 300 Unaccompanied Children 1 Afghanistan 55 2 Somalia 55 3 Vietnam 55 4 Iran 50 5 DRC 35 6 Iraq 35 7 China 30 8 Eritrea 25 9 Uganda 20 10 Ethiopia 20 children cannot just be subsumed into the wider class of asylum seekers without further thought. Rather they indicate that asylum applications from unaccompanied or separated children may not be adequately determined by simply using the legal and evidentiary framework developed to assess claims from adults even if they were from the same country. The fact that the top 10 countries of origin for female unaccompanied or separated children 13 vary greatly from those for asylum seekers as a class further underlined these points. As can be seen from the table below, in 2002 and 2003, 9 out of the 10 countries were in Africa. In addition, girls accounted for more than 50% of the asylum applicants in these countries whereas the gender distribution of unaccompanied or separated children for all the countries of origin was 23% female and 77% male in 2002 and 33% female and 67% male in 2003. This radical difference suggests both child and gender specific needs for international protection. And indeed child trafficking for the purpose of prostitution or domestic slavery, female circumcision, and forced marriage are known forms of 2002 1 Burundi 2 Congo 3 DRC 4 Eritrea 5 Ethiopia 6 Nigeria 7 Rwanda 8 Uganda 9 Vietnam 10 Zimbabwe specially targeted persecution in these countries. 14 25 Top Ten Countries of Origin October to December 2004 Top Ten Countries of Origin Female Unaccompanied or Separated Child Asylum Seekers All Asylum Seekers 1 Iran 2 China 3 Iraq 4 Somalia 5 Zimbabwe 6 DRC 7 Eritrea 8 Sudan 9 Pakistan 10 Afghanistan Unaccompanied Children 1 Iran 2 Afghanistan 3 Iraq 4 Somalia 5 Eritrea 6 Vietnam 7 DRC 8 Romania 9 Ethiopia 10 China 2003 1 Angola 2 Burundi 3 Cameroon 4 DRC 5 Eritrea 6 Ethiopia 7 Kenya 8 Rwanda 9 Uganda 10 Vietnam Hosted by www.ijjo.org
Recommendations ■ 1. If the U.K. is going to seriously address its child protection responsibilities, improved record keeping is a priority. This should include detailed records of numbers of applications, types of outcomes, and appeals by unaccompanied and separated children. ■ 2. Asylum applications from unaccompanied or separated children may require a legal and factual framework that takes into account child specific data and argument. 2.4 Entering the United Kingdom: Juxtaposed Controls To make an application for asylum an unaccompanied or separated child has to be able to reach the U.K. Over the past few years a growing set of barriers have been erected to prevent asylum seekers from doing this. Under a system of juxtaposed controls 15 immigration officers are placed at ports and Eurostar stations in France and Belgium SEEKING ASYLUM ALONE | UNITED KINGDOM 26 in order to check the immigration status of those wishing to travel to the U.K. Airline Liaison Officers also operate at various airports playing a similar role. If a traveller is not entitled to enter the U.K. under the Immigration Rules, they are turned back at that point. There are no statistics on the numbers of individuals refused leave to travel to the U.K. or whether any of those refused are unaccompanied or separated children. This lacuna clearly breaches the recommendation contained in paragraph 20 of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment No. 6 (2005) which states: A determination of what is in the best interests of the child requires a clear and comprehensive assessment of the child’s identity, including her or his nationality, upbringing, ethnic, cultural and linguistic background, particular vulnerabilities and protection needs. Consequently, allowing the child access to the territory is a prerequisite to this initial assessment process. 2.5 Access to Asylum Once an unaccompanied or separated child makes an application for asylum, the claim is processed and in theory every child becomes the responsibility of a local authority social services department. 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 and 22: It then added that “although chil
Page 23 and 24: 2004 it rose to 8.8%. This was at a
Page 25: 2.3 Countries of Origin Unaccompani
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
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SEEKING ASYLUM ALONE | UNITED KINGD
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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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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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