Child asylum seekers influx see’s some Kent children moved outside of county

By The Press Association25th January 2016News EnglandAsylum, Child Protection, Childrens Services, Kent, Local Authorities, News England, Refugees / Asylum

Vulnerable British children are being placed in care outside their home county due to the influx of child asylum seekers from across the English Channel.

Council chiefs in Kent said they have no choice but to place local children elsewhere amid the continuing flow of unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) from the Continent.

Kent County Council (KCC) currently has 924 UASC aged under 18 in its care, compared to nearly 630 at the start of last August.

Migrants have come into Europe from countries in north Africa and the Middle East, with many ending up in Calais where the 4,000-strong camp dubbed the Jungle is based.

Councillor Peter Oakford, KCC’s cabinet member for specialist children’s services, said the authority has seen a 30% rise in looked-after children in the last seven months.

He told the children’s social care and health cabinet committee: “This has affected our ability to place citizen children within Kent ourselves.

“We have had to place Kent children outside of Kent due to the influx of UASC, which is not a good position to be in and is not a position we want to be in.

“It’s actually costing us more financially because we have had to place, I think, six children into residential care either short-term or longer term, which is far more expensive than normal foster care.”

Under the Children Act 1989, it is a council’s legal responsibility to care for under-18s who arrive in their local authority area from abroad, seeking asylum.

As Kent is the closest British county to Calais and Dunkirk, where thousands of migrants and refugees are camped, KCC has had its services stretched since the start of the migrant crisis last summer.

Help to deal with the influx of UASC has been sought by KCC from other local authorities in the UK, with 22 accepting full responsibility for 56 UASC.

However, one council said it would only accept UASC under the age of five. Mr Oakford said: “It’s a little bit of a challenge for an under five year old to walk all the way from Afghanistan on their own.”

While the number of child asylum seekers coming into KCC’s care has slowed to around 15 a week during the winter, there are fears the numbers will pick up again as spring approaches.

On the winter arrival rate, Mr Oakford said: “Although that doesn’t sound much, compared to what we had in the summer, it’s still three times more than last winter’s arrival rates.

“That’s around 45-50 a month, which will add an additional 200 between now and April. Then, if the numbers start to increase like they did last year, we will be in significant difficulties.”

Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said the Government was working to ensure the burden of taking in asylum seeking children is spread out across the country.

Speaking during an urgent question on child refugees in the Commons, he said: “I can assure you that there is close work that is ongoing between the Home Office and also the Department for Education.

“I have the Children’s Minister on the bench alongside me because it is to see that children are given the support that they need.

“Equally in counties like Kent that are taking a considerable burden, that we are working with the Local Government Association and others as well as maintaining that backstop provision within the Immigration Bill to ensure there is that fair allocation of young people in need of support.”