Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the United Kingdom

Since unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are an international concern, there are several different definitions that apply to them within the UK.

The United Nations defines unaccompanied children as "children, as defined in article 1 of the Convention, 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."[1] The United Nations defines separated children, a closely related group, as "children, as defined in article 1 of the Convention, who have been separated from both parents, or from their previous legal or customary primary caregiver, but not necessarily from other relatives. These may, therefore, include children being accompanied by adult family members."[2]

The UK Home Office defines unaccompanied asylum-seeking child as "a person under 18, or who, in the absence of documentary evidence establishing age, appears to be under that age, is applying for asylum in his or her own right and has no relative or guardian in the United Kingdom."[3]

All asylum-seekers in the UK are seeking refugee status. The UK abides by the UN definition of a refugee when determining refugee status. The UN defines a refugee as a person who ‘owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.[4]

The number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children entering Great Britain varies from year to year. The following table shows the number of total applications for asylum received each year from 2006-2011.

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UASC come from all over the world, but as of 2008 the top ten countries of origin were Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Eritrea, China (including Taiwan), Somalia, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Albania.[6]

In order to be able to make an application for asylum, a separated child must first be able to reach the UK. This has become more difficult in the last decade, with immigration officers being placed at ports and Eurostar stations and airline liaison officers being placed at airports to check the travel documens of anyone wishing to travel to the UK. If a young person is not legally able to enter the UK under the immigration rules, they may be turned back before ever formally entering the UK.[8] Assuming that they make it through the immigration controls, the next step is for a person to make a formal asylum application. This application can be made at the port of entry, at the Asylum Screening Unit in Croydon, or (only for children) at local immigration service enforcement offices.[9]

When the application is completed, children will go through a Screening Interview, in which they are asked about personal details, reasons for coming to the UK, and their journey.[9] As part of this process, the child receives immigration identification papers, including an Application Registration Card (ARC) confirming that the child has formally applied for asylum.[10] Children over the age of 12 are given a date for a First Reporting Event with a case owner as well as a Statement of Evidence Form. This form provides details of the asylum case and must be filed within 20 working days by a legal representative.[9]

Following the submission of the Statement of Evidence Form, children over twelve generally undergo an interview with an immigration official about their asylum application. This interview is supposed to establish whether the child qualifies either for refugee status under the Refugee Convention or for ill treatment under article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.[10] However, the interview does not always receive the scrutiny that it should. The Immigration and Nationality Directorate has confirmed that children's asylum applications receive less consideration than those of adults because case workers are influenced by the fact that even if a child's application is refused, that child will be granted a period of discretionary leave.[8]

The asylum process on a larger scale is also subject to incorrect decisions that later have to be overturned. In 2011, the courts overturned 26% of initial Home Office decisions—a figure that rose to 50% for women.[11]

Before the age of eighteen, separated children are the responsibility of the local authority in which he or she is present.[10] Upon the arrival of an unaccompanied child, the social services department of the local authority assesses the child's needs and provides assistance.[12]

As with British children in care, though, care itself can take several different forms. If the unaccompanied asylum-seeking child is under 16 at the time of arrival, he or she is generally placed in foster care.[10] Those who are 16 or 17 at the time of arrival—the majority of these children—may be placed in foster care, but generally are placed in semi-independent accommodation, i.e. in 'shared flats or supervised accommodation'.[12] Most unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are supported under Section 20 of the Children Act 1989.[10] Under Section 20, children's services must financially support young people until the age of 18 regardless of immigration status. The amount of financial support varies according to different local authorities’ policies and placement.[10] The "Hillingdon judgment" of 2003 (R (Behre) v London Borough of Hillingdon) established that after-care services must be provided until the young person reaches the age of 21, or beyond if they are in full-time education.[13] In a subsequent legal challenge (R ex parte London Borough of Hillingdon v Secretary of State for Education and Skills), the local authority unsuccessfully challenged a decision of the Secretary of State to reduce the grant paid to the Council to support service provision.[14]

Generally speaking, most local authorities have sent returns to the UK Border Agency (now superseded by UK Visas and Immigration) each month informing the agency how many days a separated child has received support.[10]

Pathway planning refers to the process of social workers planning out the different possibilities that an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child may be facing when leaving care and potentially facing a change in status. The pathway plan should detail how a young person's needs will be met, and carried out every six months.[10] Pathway planning is a part of leaving care for all care leavers, not just UASC, but it is particularly necessary for separated children.

Many unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are facing a change in status as they approach 18, as most are initially given discretionary leave to remain until age 17 ½.[10] This expiration of leave affects not only their benefits but also their ability to remain in the UK at all. To extend leave to remain, the young person has to apply for an extension of discretionary leave to remain prior to the expiration, but even applying on time does not guarantee outcomes.[10] Pathway planning at eighteen, therefore, covers similar options to those that refugees face while undergoing the initial asylum process. If the young person received refugee status upon first application, then he/she will retain that status upon turning eighteen and pathway planning is much simpler.[10]

If the unaccompanied asylum-seeking child initially was granted a period of discretionary leave, though, the process becomes more complicated. The young person may be granted an extension of discretionary leave to remain for another finite period, and thus has the ability to legally remain in the UK with full entitlements for another several years. Many young people, though, either have their applications rejected or do not put forth their applications to extend leave in advance of the deadline.[9] These young people may return to their countries voluntarily or involuntarily. However, there is a large group of young people who remain in the country even after their request for extended leave is denied. This group is referred to as "end of line/appeal rights exhausted", and are people "who have been refused asylum or any form of temporary protection or their leave to remain has expired (and an application to extend it refused), and they have exhausted all appeals".[10]

Although these people no longer have a legal right to remain in Britain, they have for one reason or another not been removed from the UK and instead remain. Non-removal can occur for any number of reasons, but most commonly it is because many countries have inadequate return procedures and it is complicated to ensure that people will be returned home safely. A common example of why people may remain in the UK is that the Home Office is frequently unable to obtain the travel documents that would allow a failed asylum-seeker to return to his country of origin.[10]

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which the UK works to abide by, states that ‘the appointment of a competent guardian as expeditiously as possible, serves a key procedural safeguard to ensure respect for the best interests of an unaccompanied or separated child.’[15] A guardianship programme has recently completed its second year of a pilot in Scotland.[16] Though still small in scale, the programme has thus far been received fairly positively by the agencies that it interacts with. The Scottish Guardianship Service currently plans to continue offering guidance from guardians to former separated children over the age of eighteen.[17]

Although there are many agencies that work with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, these are a few of the agencies that most frequently receive referrals.

It was reported in 2023 that 200 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children had gone missing from hotels arranged for by the Home Office,[29] with 66 missing from the Brighton and Hove local authority alone.[30][31][32]

• Political asylum § United Kingdom
• Refugee
• Transnational child protection
• Unaccompanied Refugee Minors Program, a similar programme in the United States