Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to (a) monitor the welfare of unaccompanied refugee children who arrive in the UK and are in the care of the relevant authorities and (b) locate those refugee children who have gone missing in the UK in the last five years.

Mr Robert Goodwill

All local authorities have statutory duties to safeguard children as part of their local responsibilities regardless of nationality or immigration status. Once an unaccompanied asylum seeking child (UASC) becomes a looked after child the main responsibility for that child’s welfare lies with the respective local authority.

Home Office staff dealing with UASC receive specialist training and are required to follow published guidance on processing asylum claims from children, which requires the child’s welfare to be taken into account throughout the asylum claim.

The government takes the issue of missing children extremely seriously and has published a cross government strategy on missing children and vulnerable adults.

Migrant children over the age of 5, including asylum seeking children will have their biometrics captured by the Home Office. If a child goes missing, the local police and UK Missing Persons Bureau will be notified and the child’s details will be circulated on the Police National Computer. Home Office guidance requires staff to maintain contact with the local authority and the police until the child is found.