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Sara Mohammedi* arrived in the north of England from the Middle East a year ago, having fled her parents and husband after a forced marriage when she was 15. Her initial case for asylum was rejected, but she was given leave to remain until her 18th birthday. In the meantime she has learned English from scratch and is studying for her GCSEs at a local college.

"I had the option to appeal, but the solicitor wrote and said that they wouldn't take my case further," she says. This state of affairs has come about because of the reduction in hours that a lawyer can now bill as legal aid to prepare an asylum appeal. Consequently, fewer solicitors are taking on this work, leaving young asylum seekers with little chance of legal representation.


With no one to make her case in the courts, Mohammedi now faces the prospect of having to return in two years to a country where she fears for her safety. She says: "In my country the rules are different. For my family, me going away from my husband is a huge thing. It's against our religion and our culture. Because I ran away after I was married, with no permission from my husband, the rule is that you will be killed. It's a government law."

Although this threat hangs over Mohammedi, she has no right to refugee status under the Geneva Convention, which recognises persecution by the state, but not by families or individuals.

How does she feel about the transition to adult status when she turns 18? "It worries me a lot," she says, and her ready smile disappears. "You're living here for three years, but you don't know what's going to happen to you. Whenever I find out more information about it, I worry more."

Mohammedi is not alone in her plight. There are an estimated 6,000 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the UK, most of whom have their application for refugee status refused early on. However, in recognition that they are minors, most are given leave to remain, in accordance with Home Office policy.

In the years after their arrival these children go to school, build friendships and develop ambitions. But, as they approach 18, they must appeal the initial decision, and it is here that the crisis in legal aid provision for asylum-seeking children starts to kick in.

For a start, the reduction in the number of hours a lawyer can bill as legal aid. Although this makes things difficult enough for adults, there is no extra allowance for a young person on their own who is finding it difficult to understand the labyrinthine system. Nor is it taken into account that lone children may need more time to reach a point where they feel able to disclose traumatic past events. Few solicitors make enough money from legal aid to allow them to carry out asylum appeals, and many have stopped doing immigration work altogether. All in all, this means that there is less expertise available.

It is a worrying situation, says Radhika Howarth, research and development officer at charity Save the Children.

"Owing to recent restrictions on legal aid, we have come across many young people who have no legal representation at all when they come to appeal. What makes it worse is that they can have no adult to help them either," she says.

"When Save the Children has come across this, we have tried to find some legal representation, even if it is last minute. But we have heard of cases where the young person has just turned up to the tribunal on their own."

Mark Scott, a partner at law firm Bhatt Murphy, which specialises in representing asylum seekers, agrees with Howarth. "Many reputable firms are just not dealing with it any more because they feel they can't deliver the service they'd want to," he says.

For a young person coping alone with life in a new country, the uncertainty of whether they will be allowed to stay when they turn 18 can be destabilising. Some cope by trying to block out the situation, sometimes with drugs or alcohol, while others operate on the basis that knowledge is power and push for as much information as they can get - although this in itself can increase their anxiety.


Howarth thinks young people should be prepared for all the possible outcomes to prevent total shock should the Home Office make an unfavourable decision. To encourage understanding of the complex legal situation, she has developed a series of workshops for students seeking asylum and their tutors in colleges.

"A key problem young asylum seekers face is a lack of information from the system that is supporting them," she says. "There are three potential situations at 18: the young person is given some sort of leave to remain; or they have exhausted all appeals, but cannot be removed because of difficulties in getting back to the country of origin; or they have to return.

"We call this information-giving 'triple planning', and we want local authorities and the Department for Education and Skills to train social workers to prepare unaccompanied asylum-seeking children for what is going to happen."

But what could happen to them may change in the future, says Judith Dennis, policy adviser on unaccompanied children for the Refugee Council, as there are indications that some under-18s whose asylum applications have failed could be forced to return.

Most agree that, to date, the quality of decision-making on children's cases has been poor because case workers knew that most children would be given leave to remain as a stopgap measure. "We hope that, because the stakes are higher now, case workers are making better decisions," says Dennis.

For Patricia Durr, parliamentary adviser at the Children's Society, the asylum system is still overlooking young people's welfare. She says: "It's their status in the country that is put first. Turning 18 is not a magic date that turns you into an adult, able to deal with lots of very difficult issues. It can be really scary. It highlights how the asylum system is not child-centred, and we would strongly argue that any decision on children has to have their welfare at its core."

At 16 and with two years left to go until she has to face her appeal, Mohammedi remains optimistic, such is her relief at having gained her freedom for the time being.

"The most important thing is that I feel safe now," she says. "There are things I want to do with my future - I'm looking forward to it, and I'm really happy that I can do my education. I have friends here now. I want to stay in this country and finish my studying here and be useful here."

Like many others, she can but hope that there is life in the UK beyond the age of 18.

* Not her real name

For more information on help for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, contact www.childrenssociety.org.uk, www.savethechildren.org.uk  or www.refugeecouncil.org.uk