- In 2020, worldwide, 21,000 children applied for asylum having arrived in the country of refuge alone, with no parent or guardian, according to the most recent global figures published by UNHCR.
- In the year ending September 2022, the UK received 5,152 applications for asylum from unaccompanied children.
- Many of them come from Sudan, a country facing political instability following years of civil war, children, in particular, are at risk. Sudan is the 29th highest nation in the world for child marriage where girls as young as 10 years of age can be legally married.
- We usually refer to these children as separated, as it better describes the ongoing separation from their parents and family members.
- As well as Sudan, they come from countries including Iran, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Iraq, Albania, Ethiopia and Syria.
- The majority are aged between 14 and 17 years of age but we do work with younger children.
- Children are also regularly trafficked into the UK to be forced into domestic servitude, sexual exploitation and other forms of forced labour including cannabis cultivation. We are there for them.
