In the last of our General Election 2024 blog post series (in which we covered safe routes for refugees, refugee homelessness, the right to asylum, and a roundup of frequently asked questions on refugee and asylum issues) and following Refugee Week 2024, we look at the steps a new Government must take to uphold and protect the rights of children and young people who seek protection in the UK.
A disproportionate number of children are affected by forced displacement worldwide, with minors making up 40% of all forcibly displaced people.
What is a new government likely to inherit?
According to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, there has been a deterioration in the rights and protection afforded to children, especially those seeking asylum in the UK. There are four key areas where this deterioration is particularly apparent:
- Lack of safe routes This includes preventing refugee children from being reunited with their parents and siblings in the UK. The UK is an outlier in Europe because of its restrictive policies that keep children separated from their loved ones.
- Delays and a growing backlog of asylum claims from children The UK asylum system is tough, and children need access to quality legal advice and trauma-informed support.
- Flawed age assessments Rushed visual age determinations at the port of entry are leading to children being placed in an adult system with no protections in place. Each year hundreds of children are room-sharing with unrelated adults, detained and even imprisoned.
- Risk of harm and exploitation Not enough is being done to prevent exploitation and keep children safe from harm. We need to ensure there are enough foster and care placements for these children and find all the missing children who were placed in Home Office-run hotels in breach of the law.
The UK is accepting less than 0.1% of children globally who have been forcibly displaced at a time when the need for global protection is increasing.
What are we proposing a new government should do?
The next Government must commit to protecting the right of children to claim asylum and commence a review of the protection system to ensure the needs and rights of refugee children and young people are adequately met. To achieve that, the new government must:
1. Create and improve safe routes
A disproportionate number of children are affected by forced displacement worldwide, with minors making up 40% of all forcibly displaced people. Children fleeing conflicts are in desperate need of access to safe routes. A next government should provide safe alternatives to dangerous journeys:
- Family reunion The UK’s existing family reunion policy is broken. The next government must allow refugee children in the UK to sponsor their parents and siblings to join them.
- Resettlement In addition to improving the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) and piloting refugee visas, a future Government must set up a dedicated resettlement scheme for children and families with children.
- Complementary pathways A future government, working with business leaders and educators, should create opportunities that benefit children and young people as well as the UK by setting up apprenticeship, education and study routes for displaced young people.
2. Create a humane and robust asylum system
The asylum system is in urgent need of reform. A future government should repeal the Illegal Migration Act to protect refugee children from harm and exploitation. It should also:
- Process claims in the growing asylum backlog and prevent further system meltdown
- Commit to ending the detention of children, which has serious implications for children’s safety and protection
- Ensure wrap-around support: for the asylum system to function well, children need to have access to trauma-informed support and quality legal advice
- Ensure children have a clear and swift pathway to settlement and children born to refugee parents can get leave in line with their parents.
3. Solve the child protection scandal caused by incorrect age assessments
The next Government must believe children about their age and ditch plans to use so-called scientific (biological) age assessment methods, which pose unnecessary risks to children.
4. Protect children from harm and exploitation
A new Government should focus on creating a safe and loving environment for children who are in care to prevent them from going missing and being exposed to the risk of abuse and trafficking.
A future government should repeal the Illegal Migration Act to protect refugee children from harm and exploitation.
What impact will this have?
Investing in a National Refugee Strategy and commencing a review of rights and protections would create a system that is safe and fair for children and young people who come to our shores after escaping war, discrimination and abuse.
The UK is accepting less than 0.1% of children globally who have been forcibly displaced at a time when the need for global protection is increasing. Children from Afghanistan are one of the top nationalities to cross the Channel, yet only 331 children from Afghanistan were resettled to the UK as refugees in the last twelve months.
Prioritising the creation and improvement of safe routes will mean that fewer children have to take perilous journeys to the UK.
Read our previous election posts on safe routes for refugees, refugee homelessness, the right to asylum, and a roundup of frequently asked questions on refugee and asylum issues.
