More than 70 children from various conflict zones whose ages were disputed by the Home Office have been held in detention centres in the UK in preparation for forced removal to France under the government’s “one in, one out” scheme, research shows. The one in, one out initiative means each small boat arrival can be forcibly returned to France in exchange for another person – who has not attempted the crossing – being brought to the UK legally.
However, it is unlawful to detain unaccompanied child asylum seekers in adult detention centres. Data gathered by the Humans for Rights Network since removals under the scheme began last September, has identified 76 so-called age-disputed children who have been detained.
Maddie Harris, of Humans for Rights Network, said: “Many of these children are survivors of torture and trafficking and are experiencing acute declines in their mental health as a result of what is often months of detention in the UK. “These children are additionally prejudiced from accessing the care and support they are entitled to as children as well as adequate, social worker-led local authority age assessments.
No child should be detained, with those who remain in detention immediately released to allow them to recover and to ensure they are able to access age assessments conducted in the community where required.” Age assessments for young asylum seekers are a controversial area. Freedom of information requests to local authority children’s services have found that many children initially assessed to be adults by Home Office on arrival in the UK were later determined to be children after age assessment by social workers.
One child removed under “one in, one out” to France as an adult was later determined to be a child by social workers. Twenty-six of the 76 have now been released from detention and are in the care of children’s social services where they are being assessed or have already been deemed children.