Councils compelled to take in asylum-seeking children if Immigration Bill passes

Home secretary Theresa May has said she will compel local authorities to take in unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from other parts of the country if the Immigration Bill passes.

In an amendment to the Bill introduced last week, May set out the arrangements for the transfer of responsibility for these children between local authorities.

Failure to comply

If a local authority in England were to refuse the request of another authority to take in unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, the amendment would enable the government to direct the authority to provide written reasons for its failure to comply.

May said if she was not satisfied with an authority’s reasons for refusing to take in its fair share of asylum-seeking children, she would consider directing them to comply with the scheme.

Voluntary scheme

In a letter to local authorities sent three days before the amendment was introduced, the Secretary of State said she hoped the scheme, in place since the summer, to distribute unaccompanied minors across local authorities more equally could remain voluntary.

However, she said she had been considering whether voluntary arrangements should be “backed up by reserve powers”.

During the report stage of the Bill she then made it clear that if councils refused without good reason, they may be directed to comply.

The letter sent to all council leaders set out funding to support the voluntary scheme for the dispersal of unaccompanied asylum seeking children from Kent to other local authorities.

Calls for assistance

The scheme was set up in response to calls from Kent for the other 151 councils in England with social services responsibility to provide assistance under section 27 of the Children Act 1989.

Nearly 1,000 unaccompanied children are now the responsibility of Kent, and due to the lack of suitable accommodation in Kent over 300 of these have had to be placed in other authorities areas. Despite the request for assistance to other authorities only 42 have actually been transferred to their care.

Kent under pressure

May said this had placed significant pressure on the council’s social services.

She said: “We recognise the efforts of the 19 local authorities who have responded positively and have accepted children into their care from Kent.

“However, to date only 42 of the nearly 1,000 children in Kent’s care have been transferred to the care of another local authority. This is simply not enough.”

She added she was clear local authorities with the capacity to support unaccompanied asylum seeking children should do so.

Funding

May confirmed the continuation of funding amounting to more than £40,000 a year for each child under 16 accepted from Kent, and around £30, 000 for 16- and 17-year-olds.

She also confirmed extra funding of around £200 a week would be made available for local authorities who accept responsibility for children from Kent to fund their future leaving care support.