This blog was originally posted on Refugees Deeply. Early in 2015, the E.U.’s law enforcement agency, Europol, denounced the disappearance of 10,000 unaccompanied minors with a warning that they may be victims of criminal networks. Despite questions over the validityof this figure, it sparked a moral outcry. The “killer number,” as charities and aid agencies privately referred to …

Continue reading "Outrage Over Unaccompanied Minors Highlights Massive E.U. Data Gap"

  It is estimated that over 250,000 child migrants crossed irregularly into Italy and Greece in 2015. For Italy, of 16,500 child migrants, over 12,000 (72 percent) were unaccompanied. For Greece, no official distinction between accompanied and unaccompanied is made at entry for the purposes of data collection, although the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) estimates …

Continue reading "Children and Unsafe Migration into Europe: Understanding the Evidence base"

The aim of this Research Brief is to report on data collected via Freedom of Information (FOI) requests submitted to all local authorities in England concerning unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). The request asked for local authority statistics from the previous three years (March 2012 to March 2015). Key findings Increasingly children are accommodated outside the …

Continue reading "Mapping unaccompanied children in England"

This was originally posted on Becoming Adult blog. The Immigration Bill is continuing to roll through UK Parliament. On Tuesday 12th April the House of Lords gave the Bill its third and final reading, ready to send back to the House of Commons [1]. Amendments to the Bill will be considered by the House of Commons before …

Continue reading "Immigration bill and unaccompanied children – update"

The UK Government announced on 28th January 2016 that they will ‘lead a new initiative to resettle unaccompanied children from conflict regions’ [1]. After mounting pressure, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, stated that separated children will be resettled if it is considered ‘in their best interests’ and in ‘exceptional cases’ [2]. In addition, the Government statement asserts: ‘significant …

Continue reading "Against all odds: resettled separated children and the Immigration Bill"

Whatever their reason for being in the UK, if a child or young person is not a British or European Economic Area (EEA) citizen, they need permission to stay in the country. They are subject to immigration control and will require ‘leave to enter or remain’ [i]. The immigration status of children can greatly affect their …

Continue reading "Unaccompanied children and adulthood: categories and more categories"

This was originally posted on the Becoming Adult blog Many terms are used to describe people who are under eighteen years old who move across countries[i]. In addition, countries around the world have developed many different definitions for ‘child’, ‘unaccompanied children’, ‘unaccompanied minors’ and ‘separated children’ as they apply within the context of their immigration, …

Continue reading "Separated, unaccompanied, UASC: a glossary"