Kentish Express Ashford & District
‘Stop child migrants travelling to the UK’
A county councillor has called on the Border Force “to do their job” in stopping young migrants travelling from France to the UK via the English Channel.
Cllr Rory Love says the public body should be working closely with the government to ensure unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) are returned back to the safe European country they have travelled from.
Cllr Love was speaking during a virtual meeting of Kent County Council’s education committee, where several councillors and chief officers discussed the increasing challenges faced by the authority around a recent surge in UASC coming to Kent.
He said: “Border Control are able to establish the unaccompanied asylum seeking children are under 18 but seem unable to establish they come from France.
“I would have thought that would be a straightforward procedure and I haven’t heard any massive oppression in France that results in people fleeing the country seeking asylum.”
The UASC crisis has worsened during the coronavirus pandemic with young migrants, who often travel from war-torn Middle Eastern states, having ceased arriving by the traditional route of truck and train and almost exclusively arriving by small boat from Calais.
Amid talks with the Home Office, Cllr Sue Chandler (Con), cabinet member for children’s services, said high level officials at the county council had discussed ways of preventing migrants from reaching Kent.
However, she said that once young migrants have arrived on Kent shores, they become the legal responsibility of KCC.
It was revealed this week that 19 young migrants who have recently arrived in Kent will be cared for by councils outside of the county. The unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have been transferred into the care of other local authorities, including nine in the west Midlands, three in the north west, one in the east and six to neighbouring councils in the south east.
It is the first time KCC has been able to send young migrants to neighbouring councils for more than two years. The county council is working on another 18 potential placements later this week.
Cllr Chandler said: “If we see larger unaccompanied arrivals in the summer, our capacity will undoubtedly come under pressure again.”
Pledges have been made by several local authorities to take on the responsibility of 90 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and provide much-needed aid to KCC in the fast-moving migrant crisis.
KCC’s corporate director for education, Matt Dunkley, described the crisis as an “unprecedented challenge” during a public health emergency.