Latest news with #NationalTransferScheme
BBC News
11-03-2025
- BBC News
What happens to people who cross the Channel on small boats?
The white cliffs of Dover represent the end of a long, dangerous route for tens of thousands of people who travel in small boats across the English while they might have reached their destination, their journey does not end at the Kent all arrivals will begin the process of claiming asylum, which can take months. At the end of December 2024, just under a third of cases had been waiting for more than a year for an initial latest figures show asylum claims reached a record level last year. 125,000 people were awaiting a decision. So what happens while they wait? Unaccompanied children Children who arrive in Dover on small boats without any family members, known as Unaccompanied Child Asylum Seekers (UASCs), will first become Kent County Council's (KCC) responsibility, because that is the county they have arrived recent years, KCC said it has struggled to cope with the number of children it has to look National Transfer Scheme was designed to ease the pressure. It sees other councils around the country take a share of UASCs, equivalent to 0.1% of their population of the leader of Kent County Council said at times it has become "extremely difficult" to transfer unaccompanied minors to other authorities. Adults and families The Home Office is responsible for housing adults and families and in recent years it has had to find extra accommodation to make room for growing includes sites like Napier Barracks, a former military barracks in Folkestone, Kent, and the use of hotels is lower now than it was two years the end of December 2024, 38,079 people were living in asylum hotels in the UK. That is lower than the peak in September 2023, when 56,042 people were in seekers are accommodated all over the latest Home Office figures from December show the North West had the highest number of asylum seekers receiving Home Office support, followed by London and the West Midlands. These people face a number of restrictions while they live here, as Dr Ben Brindle from the Migration Observatory explains:"Most aren't allowed to work, the only people who can are those who have been waiting for a more than a year for their claims to be processed."Asylum seekers can't claim benefits either and that's because they are given an allowance of about £50 plus housing costs if needed." What happens next? Not all applications are successful. In 2024, 53% of initial asylum claims were rejected. That's higher than 2023, when 33% of claims were who are granted asylum are given refugee status for five will have 56 days to move out of their Home Office-funded accommodation, their allowance will stop and they can get a it's unlikely they'll be able to become a British citizen as the government has recently toughened up rules making it almost impossible for people who have entered the UK illegally via a dangerous route to claim citizenship. 'Get a grip' on the system Border Security and Asylum Minister, Angela Eagle, said the government was left a "broken asylum system" and "inherited a huge backlog of asylum claims."Responding to the latest asylum statistics, she said "asylum decision-making collapsed by 70% in the last few months before the election."We've now increased asylum claims in the last three months of [2024]... by 52% so we're beginning to get some order to the system but it will take time to make certain that we can get a grip and start making the system work again."Shadow home secretary Chris Philp described the figures as "no surprise," saying there was "no deterrent".Philp added that the blame for the numbers "lies firmly at Labour's feet, who have been slow to act to tackle the crisis unfolding on our border".
BBC News
07-03-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Peterborough children services sees rise in refugee children
A rise in the number of refugee children was having a "significant impact" on under-pressure children's services, a city council children's services department, which was rated "inadequate" by Ofsted, has made "improvements" and the local authority said work was ongoing to build on a council meeting this week, an annual report into the department said there were 422 children and young people under the council's care of of 31 March 2024, and 42 of them were unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC).That was an increase of 46% from 27 UASC in 2022. 'Bottleneck' The council receives asylum-seeking children into care through the National Transfer Scheme, funded by the Home Office, which allows the children to move to a different local authority rather than responsibility falling disproportionately on local authorities at their port of entry or arrival in popular of those 422 children in care, 57 % were "White British", with 43% of other Liddle, designated nurse for children in care the council, said: "We did see a huge influx of unaccompanied asylum seeking children at the end of the summer and early autumn."It does have an impact on capacity and we do have a bit of a bottleneck. It takes a bit of time to work through those."The duration of an appointment for a UASC is extended to allow for interpretation... between the young person, the carer (if they are present) and the healthcare professional." 'Stark and significant' The council said the number of children requiring care stabilized in 2024, but the increase in the number of older children being looked after created additional pressure to secure suitable homes and therapeutic Bishop, head of service corporate parenting and fostering at the town hall, described the increased complexity of children's needs as "stark and significant" in terms of the pressures placed on services, and added that it was a national Cole, cabinet member for children's services, said: "We are fully aware that things still need to improve, but the shoots are there and they are growing fast."In November 2023, a board of governors was set up after the council's response to child exploitation was ruled "not effective" by Ofsted and some young people had been left in "situations of risk".The services were revisited in January and were said to have made "significant strides". Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
06-03-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Asylum seeking children 'unprecedented demand'
The number of children travelling to the UK alone to seek asylum has risen to over 7,000 according to the latest figures, with some local authorities saying they are facing challenges accommodating them. Department of Education figures show 7,380 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) aged under 18 were in council care across England in March 2024, up from 5,080 in main entry point for migrants arriving on small boats is Dover, and Kent County Council said it recently "almost reached capacity" after a surge of arrivals in Home Office says it is working with local authorities to support them, but the Local Government Association says more funding is needed. Kent County Council (KCC) has an obligation to look after lone children when they arrive on small boats in Dover, and a National Transfer Scheme (NTS) was set up to ensure a "fairer, more equitable distribution" of children across all local councils in Kent is still caring for the highest number at 498, and council leader Roger Gough says at times it has become "extremely difficult" to transfer unaccompanied minors to other authorities. "We have seen a big increase in terms of young people transferred through the [NTS] but that's also in the context of seeing an even larger number of young people coming in," the KCC leader said. "In 2024, some 2,837 young people were referred to our services, 2,366 were transferred under the NTS, so that was an unprecedented number, and we are still looking after a bigger proportion of young people than other councils."He said there had been a "very large numbers" of arrivals in December. Gough said transfers were not at the level to guarantee the council's children's service "won't become overwhelmed again". The government has provided KCC with funding to establish five new reception centres, but the council says it is still concerned that its services will come under pressure if there is a rise in arrivals in the spring and is calling for government to make further commitments to working with councils to build capacity across the county. Gough added: "We need a national system that can respond fully and in a timely fashion, even when the demands and needs are very high."Meanwhile Hampshire County Council said government grants did not cover the significantly higher cost of looking after separated children once they turned 18, despite their "greater needs". Muddaser, who is now 25 and lives in Canterbury, fled from Sudan at the age of 16 and arrived in Dover in a lorry from told BBC South East that he reached the UK at the third attempt and now has indefinite leave to remain."Sudan isn't safe. I feel safer here. I'm not sure I'd be alive if I was in Sudan at this moment, but I am lucky to be here (UK) and to feel safer."Muddaser is about to complete his PHD in politics and law and says he wants to work for the government who supported him. Ibrahim was 15 years old when he crossed the Channel in a lorry five years left Afghanistan before the return of Taliban rule, and said his father wanted a better life for him. "People got killed on the way, people got shot in front of me. Why would he put me into this risk if Kabul was safe for me?"He says he wants to be a mechanic in the UK."I love cars, I love working with cars, I hope one day I will have my own garage, working with cars and helping people." Ahmad Othman fled from Syria when he was 16. His father had been jailed by the Assad regime and was thought to have died in prison."It was scary in my country," he said. "Leaving my family was hard but I would be dead if I stayed."Ahmad has been looked after by West Berkshire Council after making the "terrifying" channel crossing on a small boat. Nationally about 9% of looked-after children were unaccompanied Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) said the increasing numbers of arrivals in gateway authorities, such as Kent, by boat has created unprecedented demand on their services and that local authorities need more Andy Smith, said there are unresolved issues with the National Transfer scheme."These include issues around funding rates and making immigration decisions more quickly so that children and young people have certainty about their immigration status before their 18th birthday."They also need to ensure placements and specialist mental health support is available when and where they are needed". A Local Government Association spokesperson said: "Councils have reported for some years that the cost of supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and care leavers exceeds the funding they receive from the Home Office."Sufficient funding, along with targeted work to improve placement capacity and address challenges around age assessment and mental health support, is vital if the National Transfer Scheme is to operate effectively." 'Ever-deepening crisis' A spokesperson for the British Association of Social Workers said: "Social workers have long been responsible for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, however, councils have experienced year-on-year reductions in funding, while the social work sector continues to see rising social work vacancy rates." A Home Office spokesperson said: "The safety and welfare of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is our utmost priority and providing care placements for them is a national issue that requires participation from local authorities across the UK."We are continuing to work with local authorities across the UK, including Kent County Council, to support them to fulfil their statutory duties to accommodate unaccompanied children nationwide."Additional reporting by Nikki Mitchell and Jonathan Fagg, Senior BBC Data Journalist.
BBC News
03-03-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Asylum-seeking children causing council overspends across south
The number of lone asylum-seeking children being cared for in parts of the South is causing huge overspends for many local average across England, one in every 10 children in council care in 2024 had fled desperate situations abroad, according to Department for Education Wokingham borough, it was one in every four children in care and in Hampshire County Council's area last month it was one in Home Office said it was working with local authorities to support them but the Local Government Association (LGA) has said more "vital" funding was needed. Across Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Dorset, more than 750 lone asylum-seeking children are being looked after by councils, all hoping to be given refugee status. 'I want to say thanks' Ahmad Othman fled Syria when he was 16. His father had been jailed by the Assad regime and was thought to have died in to confirm his death have so far failed and Ahmad believes his father's body lies, unidentified, in one of thousands of mass graves."It was scary in my country," he said. "The war, they killed people. Leaving my family was hard but I would be dead if I stayed."Ahmad has been looked after by West Berkshire Council and a youth homelessness charity called Step by Step."I want to say thanks a lot for supporting me. I will be supporting this country in the future," he said. The number of people claiming asylum in the UK in 2024 reached its highest level since records began in 1979, according to Home Office them were 7,380 children who arrived alone in England, up from 5,080 in 2020. The government's National Transfer Scheme (NTS) aims to ensure a "fairer, more equitable distribution" of children arriving in the UK alone, across all local councils in Borough Council said it had "disproportionately high" numbers because of its "preventative" work to keep local children with their families and the NTS places children from abroad "based on local population sizes". Hampshire County Council said government grants did not cover the significantly higher cost of looking after separated children once they turned 18, despite their "greater needs".As a result, it is facing a £4.2m shortfall in its children's services budget in the financial year ending in March LGA said the cost of supporting lone asylum-seeking children often exceeded the grants councils received from the Home Office. The vast majority of separated children applying for asylum are boys but one in every 25 are girls, like Shula, who is living with a host family in Newbury, - not her real name - was 16 when she fled her Muslim family to avoid being forced into a marriage she did not had renounced her faith and feared her "really strict" family would find her and hurt her, or force her to return, after she escaped on a plane with a sister."Our country is so strict, we thought people might stop us because we were girls alone," she is the seventh teenager Beverley and Mark Landreth-Smith have welcomed into their home through a hosting programme run by Step by Landreth-Smith said some of the children they looked after had been subjected to "racist" and "unkind" comments."A lot of people were really nice to me," said Shula. "But also there were people that were racist. I don't want them to feel like I'm a bad person." Now aged 19, Ahmad is studying at Reading College and plans to give back to the UK by becoming an electrical engineer. The Home Office has granted him five years "leave to remain" in the country as a can then apply for permanent residency and, 12 months after that, British Step-by-Step, backed by the EveryYouth network of youth homelessness charities, fears many lone asylum-seeking children could now be denied the right to stay in the UK government's new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill will bar refugees who enter the UK illegally from ever becoming British wants separated children to be exempt from this, so they do not face "lifelong legal limbo".The Home Office said the safety and welfare of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children was its "utmost priority"."We are continuing to work with local authorities across the UK to support them to fulfil their statutory duties to accommodate unaccompanied children nationwide," it said. Additional reporting by the BBC Local Data Team You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
