children's rights | ukwatch.net

Young asylum seekers 'traumatised by treatment'

Ellie Keen — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 18:31:17 +0000

Children in the asylum and immigration system are being subjected to fundamental breaches of their rights, Wales’s Children’s Commissioner said today.

Keith Towler said he had been shocked by the treatment of children he had encountered, some of whom had been detained for months.

In his annual review, he said: “They have returned to Wales traumatised by the experience, suffering physical symptoms such as weight loss and psychological symptoms such as nightmares, bedwetting, and behavioural problems.”

All the children he has represented had complained about the healthcare, food and searches at Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire, and about not being allowed to go to the toilet on long journeys.

Mr Towler said he had raised the matter with ministers and intended to visit and inspect the conditions in which children who were ordinarily resident in Wales are held.

While many children seeking sanctuary had positive experiences about genuine care and support in their communities and schools, the commissioner said: “I have been shocked by the lack of respect and the fundamental breaches of children’s rights in the asylum and immigration system.”

One child quoted in the report, Mr Towler’s first since being appointed in March, describes being taken to Yarl’s Wood in a car journey lasting more than four hours, saying: “I was sick in the car. They didn’t stop.”

In August a prison inspectors’ report said children were becoming distressed and scared after being incarcerated for too long at Yarl’s Wood.

The average length of time children were being held had almost doubled from eight to 15 days in the last two years, it found.

Mr Towler said his office had acted on behalf of a number of sick children who were refused medical care because they were seeking asylum and had “no status”.

He said he was “disappointed” that regulations had not been changed to give young asylum seekers equal access to education and he was taking legal advice on the matter.

Even though some had lived in Wales for a large part of their childhood, they were not getting education maintenance allowances and were being charged overseas student fees at university.

He pointed to a “gap” between praiseworthy policies for children and their inconsistent delivery. Despite good intentions, many children are not feeling the benefit.

They include child and adolescent mental health services and funding for many projects that do not know whether they will still be there from one year to the next.

“The fact that this gap is evident across a number of policy and service areas, in different parts of Wales, is a regular feature not only of news coverage but of advice and support cases brought to my attention, underlines the need to recognise the problem and look for ways to address it,” he said.

Download the Commissioner’s Report here

Kamal Begi: deportation

Ellie Keen — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:42:38 +0000

Kamal Begi, a Brampton Manor student, and his uncle have lost all their appeals for asylum and are under threat of deportation, despite having lived in the UK for over six years. When they arrived in January 2002, they were granted leave to remain for a year and then later refused indefinite leave to remain.

Kamal says that his father and one uncle were murdered by the Taliban and he was threatened by having a gun held to his head. His family decided that, for his own safety, he needed to leave. The family is Hazara, a Shia grouping which has, allegedly, been subjected to ethnic cleansing by the Taliban. Kamal left his mother and three younger brothers to travel with an uncle by a tortuous route through many countries to arrive in the UK and seek asylum.

Kamal, who joined his local Brampton Manor School in East Ham, London in September 2003, is now leaving Year 11, having taken his GCSEs. He is expected to do well and has been accepted by Newham 6th Form College where he plans to take his ‘A’ levels and later hopes to go to university and read business studies and information technology.

The school has already collected over a thousand signatures on a petition for him to stay which was handed to Lyn Brown MP at the House of Commons on 24 June.

Below we publish excerpts from letters written by fellow students campaigning for Kamal’s right to stay.

‘I have known Kamal for 5 years and as long as I have known him for he has not caused any trouble in or outside school … All he has ever done since he has come to this country is try and work hard to the best of his ability … please do not make him another statistic in Afghanistan … I and a lot of other people will be devastated if you take him away from us.’

‘He is a peaceful young boy with a chance to better his life in this country, he has built bonds with so many people including me. I have known him for 5 years now and would like to know him for the rest of time.’

‘He has always stood beside me when I was in trouble … the best memory of him was when we were in central London and we got lost, it took us 2 hours to find our way back. While I was panicking Kamal was keeping me calm.’

‘Me and Kamal have a very good memory. We both had some history.’

‘What’s the point him going back now. There’s war going on in his country, his life is in danger there.’

‘I started new and I never had friends. Kamal was my first friend. I never got along with no one. He was my first friend in Brampton Manor … he inspires people. If Kamal leaves then nothing will be the same without him.’

‘This person is always willing to go an extra mile to achieve best results. Kamal is an inspiration to the community and many children look up to him … He always used to help me. In maths lessons he was like my personal teacher … in ICT we used to have a laugh between ourselves.’

‘Kamal has been a close friend of mine for five years. He has helped me out in difficult situations and resolves things for me. When I need help on any of my work he tells me what to do and also helps other classmates. So here I am trying to say he is a great, loving and caring person so he should be allowed to stay … Our school has prepared a petition and of that doesn’t work out we are willing to go further because we won’t give up.’

Please support Kamal Begi’s campaign and sign the petition.

Few Safeguards for Asylum-Seeking Children

Ellie Keen — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:23:01 +0000

An investigation by 11 Million, the organisation led by the Children’s Commissioner, found that children’s basic needs for food, accommodation and legal advice were often not met. The report suggested that ignoring these basic needs impacted upon children’s ability to understand and contribute to their screening interviews.

Most unaccompanied child asylum seekers are trafficked or smuggled into the UK and therefore do not claim asylum at the border. The report assessed how children were treated when they presented themselves at the Asylum Screening Unit in Croydon.

One of the greatest concerns regarded the issue of establishing age. Observers from 11 Million found that too much discretion was given to immigration officers in deciding age-disputed cases. Establishing an applicant’s age is critical for deciding whether he/she should be provided with accommodation and accompanied by a ‘responsible adult’ during interviews. While policy mandates that children at asylum screening units are entitled to a ‘responsible adult’ to guide them through the screening process, no such protection exists for age-disputed applicants, even though their age is undecided.

The report also highlighted other problems detrimental to children’s well-being. In the screening units there is a separate waiting room for children but no food is available and no signs for where food or toilets can be found. The 11 Million observers found that children were unlikely to ask for food in such an intimidating, formal environment and that their hunger would negatively impact upon their screening interviews. The observers found that the whole process was too long for children, particularly when they had the added anxiety about where they would be accommodated that night and where they could get food from.

The 11 Million observers found that no written policy exists on how staff should conduct interviews with children, which results in inconsistencies and excessively long interviews. There were also problems found with the content of those interviews. Screening interviews are only intended to establish the applicants’ identity and how they made their way to the UK; it should not involve questions on asylum claims. However, in one case, observed by an 11 Million employee, an applicant was asked eighteen questions about his asylum claim without the benefit of prior legal advice. This information can then be used in deciding an applicant’s asylum claim.

The report which described the current process as ‘frightening, confusing [and] intimidating’ recommended that children’s immediate needs for food, accommodation, cleanliness and legal representation should be prioritised before the lengthy process begins.

Download a copy of Claiming asylum at a screening unit as an unaccompanied child by the Children’s Commissioner for England, (pdf file, 480kb)