The Immigration Law Practitioners‚ Association (ILPA) today expressed its profound disappointment that a wait since 31 May 2007 months for the Border and Immigration Agency to publish the results of its consultation on unaccompanied children has yielded today a document with almost no new information in it. Hermione McEwen, solicitor who chairs ILPA‚s  Children sub-committee, says:

"The results of the consultation were not available to parliamentarians debating what measures were necessary to safeguard and promote the welfare of children under immigration control when the UK Borders Bill 2007 was going through parliament. Now that we have the document, we can only ask "Why not?". An amendment that would have made the Border and Immigration Agency subject to duties under the Children Act 2004 was lost by one vote.  Would that have been the case had parliamentarians seen how little was contained in this document?"

During debates on what is now the UK Borders Act 2007, Ministers resisted the Border and Immigration Agency being made subject to a duty to "have regard to" safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children‚ in the discharge of its duties.  A Code of Practice was the compromise offered by the government. The consultation paper on that Code has also been issued today.  Ms McEwen expresses ILPA‚s concern that

"if the Agency could not be placed under a duty to "have regard to" safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, then what can a Code be expected to achieve?"

ILPA is surprised that the Border and Immigration Agency document states

"There is presently a lack of consensus among stakeholders about the merits of x-rays as a means of accurately assessing age."

ILPA, whose 2007 research report When is a child not a child not a child? Asylum, age disputes and the process of age assessment‚ is aware that responses to the consultation from the Royal College of Radiologists, the British Dental Association, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, 11 Million (the Children‚s Commissioner for England and Wales), children‚s organisations and refugee organisations all opposed the use of X-rays.  In the foreword to When is a child not a child? Sir Al Aynsley Green, the Children‚s Commissioner condemned the proposal to use X-rays as part of age assessment stating

"it is naïve to argue that they can determine the child‚s chronological Œage‚∑Furthermore there are serious ethical concerns over subjecting children to an investigation that is of no therapeutic benefit to them.  Finally, it is deceitful and duplicitous to argue that such an x-ray would provide the opportunity to assess dental health"

ILPA expresses the hope that the proposed new working group on age assessment will focus on the process of age assessment as a whole, and in particular how the Border and Immigration Agency can ensure that its policies of giving children the benefit are implemented in practice, rather than revisit the question of x-rays.

ILPA is disappointed that the Border and Immigration Agency report appears to see the determination of a child's claim for recognition as a refugee as something to be got out of the way before the serious business of deciding what is to be done with them can start.    Ms McEwen said:

"The tenor of the report would not lead a reader to understand that a child may indeed face persecution on return and that a child‚s claim for international protection from such persecution may be well-founded."

Where a child does not require international protection for persecution the question of their children protection needs will remain.  The Border and Immigration Agency paper states:

"We will therefore work to provide Assisted Voluntary Return (AVR) programmes that are more attractive and tailored to the needs of unaccompanied asylum seeking children." (para 6.5)

This and the surrounding discussion fail adequately to acknowledge that a child‚s wish to return is only part of the story.  UK child protection legislation exists to ensure that children are not put at risk of harm and the child‚s wishes cannot override the obligation to discharge child protection responsibilities toward that child.

For further information please get in touch with Alison Harvey, General Secretary of ILPA on 0207 251 83 83, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it