A House of Lords inquiry has found that thousands of lone migrant children are living in squalid conditions after being let down by European countries, including the UK.
Youngsters face a “culture of suspicion” as authorities try to dodge taking on their care, and their “harrowing” circumstances have led them to lose faith in national authorities, making them easy prey for smuggling gangs.
More than 10,000 migrant children have disappeared after arriving in Europe over the past two years, according to the EU’s police intelligence unit.
The European Union committee of the Lords criticised the UK government for a “continuing reluctance … to show solidarity with its European partners in helping to relocate such children”.
Nearly 90,000 lone minors sought refuge in the EU in 2015 – a sharp increase compared with just over 23,000 in the previous year. In the UK last year there were 3,043 applications from unaccompanied asylum-seeking children – an increase of 56% on the number in 2014.
The committee found that EU member states are “fundamentally” failing to fulfil their obligations under EU and international law to receive and protect children “in a manner that recognises their specific vulnerability”.
Conditions in camps in the French Channel ports are “wholly unsuitable” for children. The frequency of “non-medical age assessments”, particularly in the UK, indicates a “widespread reluctance to believe unaccompanied migrant children’s narratives”. And evidence suggests a lack of “burden-sharing” between UK local authorities, with one council caring for 412 unaccompanied children, while many others had none.
Committee chairwoman Baroness Prashar said the current refugee crisis was the greatest humanitarian challenge the EU had faced in its lifetime, but member countries were failing to shoulder their “fair share of the burden”.
She said: “At the sharp end of this crisis are unaccompanied migrant children, who are being failed across the board. We found that these children face suspicion on arrival. They are seen as ‘somebody else’s problem’, and the conditions they live in were described to us as deplorable and squalid.”
In May the government said lone child refugees registered in France, Italy or Greece before 20 March could be resettled in the UK. Ministers had been under pressure to accept 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees from Europe, but then-Prime Minister David Cameron said numbers would depend on what local councils could cope with.
The Home Office said the new policy – which is underpinned by the Immigration Act 2016 – had made “crystal clear” its commitment to bring vulnerable children from Europe to the UK. More than 20 children have been accepted for transfer to the UK since the Act was given royal assent and the majority of those have arrived.
Meanwhile, Downing Street defended Theresa May’s decision to scrap the post of Syrian refugees minister – a move criticised by a number of MPs, including Conservative backbencher Heidi Allen.The prime minister’s official spokeswoman said the Home Office would retain responsibility to meet the government’s promise to take in 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020.