“These are not our children” - unaccompanied asylum seeking children in the UK

Children who seek asylum alone are amongst the most vulnerable in our society. Young survivors of immeasurable trauma, they lack the stability of a regular immigration status, and are at the mercy of the state. International human rights law is, by definition, applicable to all people in all contexts. However these ‘universal’ rights are at odds with both the lived experience of unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) in the UK and the domestic policies governing their care.

Since 2010, over 29,000 lone children have claimed asylum in the UK. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights entitles everyone to seek safety from persecution but children are singled out as being ‘entitled to special care and assistance’. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights affirms that children have a right to protection ‘without discrimination’. Most recently, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child declared that all children have a right to care and competent supervision, in line with the ‘best interests of the child’. By signing these human rights instruments, the UK has pledged to uphold children’s rights.

UK policy entitles unaccompanied children to adult supervision, guidance and independent advocacy. They should also be provided with supported accommodation and financial support. Unaccompanied children are entitled to greater legal representation and specialist staff should show greater leniency when processing their asylum applications.

Concerningly though, weaknesses in the UK asylum system undermine the principle of ‘best interests’. For example, when the Home Office disputes a young person’s age, complex age assessments are necessary. Disturbingly, age assessment policy is inconsistently adhered to, those responsible are insufficiently trained, use flawed methods, and decisions are financially and politically constrained. Unaccompanied children wrongly determined to be over 18 are accommodated with adults, losing vital protection in the legal process. This exposes children to significant risks, without meaningful recourse to advocacy and disadvantages their asylum application.

The vast majority (2,010) of 16-17 year old unaccompanied asylum seeking children in the UK live either independently or semi-independently with very low level support. Their mental health issues are compounded, with symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) significantly higher for children living in this way compared to foster placements. This lack of support was exacerbated by COVID measures, as in-person visits and wellbeing checks were withdrawn. Instead, phone calls and scrapped statutory timeframes meant that ‘best interests’ assessments weren’t followed through properly. As a result, children were exposed to lasting harm from neglect, poor housing, exploitation, and homelessness (Bhatti-Sinclair, 2021).

The UK’s UASC safeguarding policy shamelessly problematises children as inherently dangerous whilst the new Nationality and Borders Bill sanctions invasive and unethical age assessment methods. In order to stop this torrent of human rights breaches against some of the most vulnerable children in our society, an urgent review of these policies is necessary. There should also be greater collaboration between the ICIBI and OFSTED to ensure that children’s ‘best interests’ are being fully implemented without discrimination. Without drastic action to redress these breaches, both our value for human rights and any moral authority to critique other nations are seriously called into question. As Freeman (2011) points out, acknowledging the moral imperatives of human rights is very different to consistently upholding those rights.

References

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