Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children: record numbers arriving once again in Kent

The Children’s Commissioner has written a blog called "Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children: record numbers arriving once again in Kent".

She says: "My unique responsibility as Children’s Commissioner, enshrined in law, is to protect children and give them a voice – and I have a particular duty of care towards those children who aren’t able to live with their birth families.

That includes those arriving on these shores completely alone, having left their families to escape war, or lost them in terrible circumstances. For these children especially, I am fiercely determined to promote and champion their rights.

I was hugely reassured by the decision to close the hotels run by the Home Office, where children and young people were accommodated without sufficient regard to their safety, their right to care or their education. The Home Office should not have responsibility for these children, and I am grateful to their teams for their work with my office to ensure this remains the case.

However, as numbers arriving on the Kent coast begin to rise again dramatically – with record numbers arriving just this week – I am concerned that insufficient long-term solutions have been found to accommodate unaccompanied minors. I have repeatedly warned about the need to invest in more appropriate accommodation for children arriving in this country because, without this, we are in danger of repeating the problems of the past.

Unaccompanied children like those arriving in Kent are the responsibility of the local authority where they arrived. Once they have been processed by the Home Office, they should immediately be taken into the care of the relevant local authority, and where appropriate swiftly be transferred to the long-term care of local authorities across the country through the government’s National Transfer Scheme.

The local authority must provide an appropriate care placement, such as a children’s home or foster care. The Department for Education has responsibility for children’s social care, and – with the regulatory body Ofsted- making sure each local council is meeting its statutory duties towards these children. It is essential they work hand in glove with the Home Office, which is responsible for asylum claims and for ‘processing’ the individuals arriving across the Channel.

There are lots of professionals working hard in immensely challenging circumstances. My call to arms to government encompasses multiple authorities. This responsibility is a shared one and these are complex issues to solve."