The UK government has decided to reinstate legal assistance for foreign unaccompanied minors that have been separated from their families.
The British Ministry of Justice has announced it wants to amend the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offender Act. The change would allow for the reinstatement of legal aid for immigration cases involving asylum requests for unaccompanied minors that have been separated from their families.
Reports were included in a statement by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE).
Assistance for unaccompanied minors 'vital'
The decision by the British government has come after a judicial review by the Children's Society, which has been conducting a campaign on the issue since 2013, when legislation came into force that revoked the right to legal assistance for this category of vulnerable migrants.
Matthew Reed, Chief Executive of the Children's Society, said that "legal aid is absolutely vital for ensuring that children can access justice. For children who are subject to immigration control and who are in this country on their own, it is an absolute lifeline. The government should be commended for this significant change for children and young people."
The Children's Society estimates that about 15,000 children have not received the legal aid that they need in the UK. The organization noted that the 2013 law has left many minors "struggling to pay for the expert legal advice they desperately need, which can cost thousands of pounds - on top of expensive Home Office administration fees, which have also increased enormously. Some of the young people we spoke to for our research faced sexual and criminal exploitation or worked in dodgy jobs for little pay just to raise money to pay their legal fees."
Difficulties of the system
ECRE noted that, at the moment, legal aid is available in the UK in all asylum cases and cases in which an individual is appealing a detention ruling. For other immigration-related issues, assistance is available through the Exceptional Case Funding (ECF), which was set up to be used for cases in which there is a risk of human rights violations. However, studies show that only a small number of unaccompanied, separated minors have been able to gain access to this mechanism.
Lacking access to legal help, immigrant children in the UK are at risk of being excluded from education, healthcare and other forms of support as well as being at risk of detention.