A briefing from The Children’s Society on
The role and performance of the UK Border Agency
House of Lords debate, Thursday 19 July 2012
About The Children’s Society
The Children‟s Society supports over 48,000 children and young people every year through
our specialist services and children‟s centres. We work with almost 2,000 young refugees and
migrants each year through 8 specialist centres across England as well as through our
children‟s centres and other mainstream services. Our services seek to ensure that children
and young people have a safe place to stay, access to education, legal representation and
specialist support and we help empower young people to make positive choices.
Introduction
The Children‟s Society welcomes this debate on the role and performance of the UK Border
Agency (UKBA). We believe that:
 There should be an independent review of the implementation of the UKBA‟s duty to
safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
 The UKBA should stop plans to return unaccompanied minors to Afghanistan and Iraq.
 The government should fulfil its commitment to ending the detention of children for
immigration purposes.
Section 55 duty
Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 20091 places a duty on the
Secretary of State – and thereby the UKBA – to promote the best interests of the child in
immigration, asylum, nationality and customs functions. The accompanying statutory
guidance emphasises the fact that children have the right to be consulted and express views
on matters concerning them.
From our direct work with children and young people we consistently see how their welfare
and best interests are trumped by immigration control and how their views are not taken into
account in decisions that affect them. A series of recent court judgements illustrate how the
actions or inactions of the UKBA have routinely failed to take into account the best interests
of the child, leading to decisions which have raised serious safeguarding concerns. For
example, the Supreme court made key findings on best interests and children‟s views in the
case of ZH (Tanzania) in which the mother‟s removal would have meant either separating the
British children from their mother or to remove them from their settled life in the UK and
their father. We are unaware of any guidance for UKBA staff on Section 55 this should affect
their treatment of cases involving children.
 We believe that an independent review of the UKBA’s implementation of the
Section 55 duty to promote the best interest of the child is urgently needed.
Returns of unaccompanied minors
The UKBA is planning to return minors to countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq as part of
the European Return Platform for Unaccompanied Minors project, this year. According to a
report by the European Council of Refugees and Exiles, the Afghan government has not
accepted any returned children because of the security situation and a lack of a satisfactory
child protection system2. In the context of continuing armed conflict, known human rights
abuses and lack of protection for children‟s safety, children should not be forcibly returned to
Afghanistan. We are extremely concerned that the UKBA continues to pursue this policy.
1
Every Child Matters: Change for children statutory guidance:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/policyandlaw/legislation/bci-act1/change-forchildren.pdf?view=Binary
2
ECRE (2012) Study on the Return of Children: http://www.ecre.org/component/content/article/63-projects/261-return-ofchildren.html.
 The UKBA should stop plans to return unaccompanied minors to Afghanistan and
Iraq.
Ongoing detention of children
There is overwhelming evidence that immigration detention is detrimental for children with
research. Showing that children have experienced symptoms including weight loss,
sleeplessness, severe mental health difficulties including self-harm, depression and symptoms
of post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of being detained. In recognition of this
evidence, the coalition government pledged to end this “state-sponsored cruelty” in May
2010. We welcomed this announcement and the progress that has been made including the
closure of the Yarls Wood family unit where children and families were previously detained for
long periods of time.
However, children and families can still be detained prior to enforced removal at the
Immigration Removal Centre at Tinsley House and the new family detention facility in Sussex
called Cedars or „Pre-departure Accommodation‟. The Pre-Departure Accommodation is a
secure facility and has areas where families and individuals can be held in isolation. Children
and families detained here are held there under immigration powers and it is inspected by the
Chief Inspector of Prisons. A time limit of one week has been set on child detention although
this has not as yet been set out in legislation. According to Home Office statistics 99 children
were detained under immigration powers in 2011 down from 436 in 2010 and 1,119 in 2009.
Children also continue to be detained alone when their age is incorrectly assessed as over 18
as well as in short-term holding facilities at ports, for which data is not monitored centrally or
published. Children‟s welfare organisations are extremely disappointed that the Government
has not fulfilled its commitment to end child detention fully.
 The government should fulfil its commitment to ending the detention of children
for immigration purposes.
Lack of a durable protection status
We are concerned that many unaccompanied children seeking protection in the UK are not
being given the protection status they need to ensure their safety and well-being as they
transition into adulthood. The majority of unaccompanied children in the UK come from
countries experiencing armed conflict, known human rights abuses or serious oppression.
Of the approximately 3,000 initial decisions made on unaccompanied children‟s cases each
year, only 12% of children are granted refugee status and only 1% Humanitarian Protection.
The majority (54%) of children are granted discretionary leave to remain in the UK3. They are
granted discretionary leave for up to 3 years, or until they reach the age of 17½, whichever
is the shorter period.
The uncertainty in their immigration status puts an enormous amount of pressure on young
people as they turn 18, who risk being detained, made destitute or forcibly removed from the
UK. The Discretionary Leave status also means that young people are more likely to be cut
off from local authority support when they turn 18 and become „appeal rights exhausted‟. Our
report ‘I don’t feel human’ highlights the impact that forced destitution has these young
people4.
 The government should undertake an urgent review of the quality of decision
making in the asylum process for unaccompanied children and young people.
For more information, please contact Ilona Pinter, Policy Advisor on 0207 841 4509 or at
[email protected].
3
4
This figure is based on the average rates for decisions made between 2006 and 2010 from Home Office data.
http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/tcs/research_docs/thechildrenssociety_idontfeelhuman_final.pdf.