Call for asylum-seeking children to have legal guardians

The Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England will today call for all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to have legal guardians to help them access support.

Representatives of commissioner Al Aynsley-Green will make the call at a meeting of the joint committee on human rights which is conducting an inquiry into the treatment of asylum seekers.

The commissioner is also calling for the immigration service to be subject to section 11 of the Children Act 2004, which would require it to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in its work.

Aynsley-Green’s representatives will also renew his call for the government to remove its reservation on applying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to asylum-seeking children, which means the convention can be overridden by immigration law.