Recent case law highlights the potentially harmful consequences of asylum applicants having their ages disputed. A number of recent court cases have highlighted the risks that face young asylum seekers who, after arriving in the UK, are unable to show how old they are, because, for example, they lack the requisite identification documents. Judgments on…
Syrians who are resettled in Britain will finally be recognised as refugees by the UK Government. The Home Office has announced that Syrian refugees who are being resettled here will now be granted refugee status, rather than humanitarian protection. This will enable Syrians to access university and to travel more easily to visit relatives in other European…
We are deeply saddened to hear the news that Professor Sir Nigel Rodley, one of Coram Children’s Legal Centre’s patrons, has passed away. Professor Rodley was one of the ‘founding fathers’ of the human rights movement and dedicated his career to combating human rights violations. He was a member of the UN Human Rights Committee, and…
Today the House of Lords will debate an amendment to the Immigration Bill calling for the resettlement of 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children to the UK. When calling for support for his amendment, Lord Dubs has compared the situation now to that in 1938 and 1939, when the UK was the only European country to permit Kinderstransport children to enter. Certainly it…
‘Undocumented children are triply vulnerable, as migrants, as persons in an irregular situation and as children. The laws tend to tackle their situation from a migration and status standpoint, and not from a child viewpoint’ Council of Europe A recent estimate put the number of undocumented migrant children in the UK at 120,000, with over…
‘When I first came in this country the first person I meet give me an age she think I might be. The only thing left with me was my identity but she denied it by giving me what she believes I am’ Young person Children who arrive alone in the UK are regularly disbelieved about…
‘Every child matters even if they are someone subject to immigration control’ Prompted by concerns raised through our advice and casework that many services for young refugees and migrants in England were inadequate, unavailable or facing an uncertain future, Coram Children’s Legal Centre undertook a review of the level and quality of advice and representation…