News

• Directors warn new cash for asylum seeker children is not enough

Children of asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected, but who fail to return to their home country, may be taken into care, immigration minister Beverley Hughes has warned, writes Sally Gillen.

She told a meeting of the home affairs select committee that the move was designed to deter asylum seekers from staying in the UK after their appeal had been refused.

But committee chairperson John Denham said there were fears the policy would not have the desired effect.

“There is concern that asylum seekers will not opt to return, but instead disappear into a pool of illegal workers. If that happens the government will encounter more expense and will be adding to the problems of those individual families,” he said.