Wednesday 21 July 2021
Croydon Council calls for financial help after taking in more than 5,000 unaccompanied asylum seeking children
Amnesty
International says the government's Nationality and Borders Bill will only
bring more "chaos and delay" to the UK's immigration system.
The
bill has passed its second reading in the Commons.
It
would allow the UK to send asylum seekers to a "safe third country"
and to submit claims at a "designated place" determined by the
secretary of state.
The
news comes after hundreds of people arrived on the shores on Kent in one day on
Monday.
Meanwhile,
Croydon Council is urging the Home Office to address a funding gap in the cost
of caring for unaccompanied children seeking asylum.
Over
the last decade the borough has taken in more than 5,000 unaccompanied
asylum-seeking children.
They
register in the United Kingdom via a Home Office immigration centre, Lunar
House, in Croydon town centre.
Central
government is expected to fund most of councils’ unaccompanied asylum-seeking
children’s costs.
But
since 2015 Croydon has paid an excess every year of between £7m and £9m to top
up the funding received from the Home Office.
The
council is also calling on the Home Office to make it mandatory for councils
nationwide to share the responsibility for new arrivals.
Under
government guidelines, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children arrivals should
make up 0.07% of each host council’s child population, with councils nationwide
taking in the rest.
If these guidelines were followed, Croydon would have
responsibility for 66 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
However, there are
currently 205 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children being cared for by Croydon
Council, plus 439 care leavers who arrived unaccompanied.
This is over 40% of
all children and young people the council looks after.
The
National Transfer Scheme (NTS) is currently voluntary, which means other
councils are not required to take in children from gateway councils like
Croydon or Kent.
Croydon says its annual
funding gap to support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is financially
unsustainable and, if left unaddressed, will in future years pose serious risk
to the borough’s children’s services.
The
report adds that 24 other London authorities have agreed to help ease Croydon’s
unaccompanied asylum-seeking children costs by taking caring responsibility for
new arrivals in the borough for the next three months.
posted by Radio Jackie News Team @ 9:00 pm