A recent report reveals that numerous child refugees have faced mistreatment and misuse, and several have been detained in prisons for adults due to incorrect assessments of their ages by the Home Office.
During an 18-month period, a report from the Refugee Council, the Helen Bamber Foundation, and Humans For Rights Network discovered that the Home Office mistakenly classified at least 1,300 children as adults.
Due to inaccurate age evaluations, conducted by Home Office workers within a short timeframe of their arrival in the UK, some children have been relocated to lodgings meant for adult asylum seekers. Others have been placed in immigration detention centers or prisons for adults.
According to the report “Forced Adulthood”, leaving children in unsupervised adult housing puts them in danger and could potentially harm them.
During the first six months of 2023, 69 local government bodies were notified of 1,004 cases where young individuals were placed in adult accommodations or detained. This information was obtained through a freedom of information request by the report’s authors. Out of the 847 children who were assessed by social workers, over half were determined to have been inappropriately housed with adults or detained.
Children as young as 14 years old have been compelled to reside in the same rooms as adults who are not related to them, without any protective measures in effect. Under the Nationality and Borders Act, fourteen minors were detained in adult prisons for immigration-related offenses.
During a span of 18 months, the Home Office’s inadequate age assessment process resulted in harm to at least 1,300 child refugees, as indicated by recent statistics combined with previously obtained data from 2022.
The Age Dispute Project by the Refugee Council helped 185 children who were previously classified as adults. Of those, 98 were relocated from an unsafe adult environment to local government care, while others are awaiting further evaluation.
In 2022, a child was stabbed while residing in a hotel designated for adult asylum seekers. Another child was sexually assaulted by an unrelated adult, with whom they were forced to share a room. The report revealed that children who were mistakenly labeled as adults faced a higher risk of suicidal thoughts and running away.
The report urges the Home Office to only challenge a child’s stated age in unusual situations and to regularly inform local authorities when a potential child has been deemed an adult by them.
The CEO of the Refugee Council, Enver Solomon, expressed concern about the safety of child refugees who are hidden and vulnerable due to incorrect decisions made by the Home Office. This is a serious failure in child protection and the government needs to address it immediately in order to ensure the safety of every child.
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Maddie Harris, the director of Humans for Rights Network, stated that their organization has helped numerous children who were mistakenly placed in adult asylum hotels and prisons. Shockingly, this includes 14 children who were held in adult prisons for up to seven months and forced to share cells with adult males. These children are extremely frightened and are still dealing with the emotional impact of being wrongfully treated as criminals.
Kamena Dorling, policy director at the Helen Bamber Foundation, expressed concern over the latest statistics, stating that there is a persistent issue with the Home Office’s border decision-making process, resulting in numerous children facing adverse consequences.
According to a spokesperson from the Home Office, determining a person’s age through age assessments can be difficult and there is no one definitive method. It is common for individuals arriving in the UK who claim to be children to lack clear evidence, such as an original passport or identity document, to support their claim.
“We are enhancing our procedures for determining age, which includes creating the National Age Assessment Board and outlining scientific techniques for age evaluations. The Illegal Migration Act will enforce measures to promptly deport individuals who have been determined to be adults and have no legal right to stay in the UK.”
Source: theguardian.com
