October 2004
Detention of a disputed minor - Home Office accepts that they acted unlawfully.
In a consent order signed on 8 October 2004, the Secretary of State accepted that he had unlawfully detained 'A', a disputed minor, for 12 days, and accepted that he was liable in damages for that unlawful detention. The Secretary of State accepted that: (1) he was not entitled to detain 'A' as an adult in reliance on an informal, unreasoned and imprecise assessment of his age carried out by an emergency social services team; (2) he could not detain 'A' as an adult in reliance on an informal assessment of him as an adult by a social services team when a consultant paediatrician with experience in conducting age assessments had come to the conclusion that A was likely to be a minor. For a full note on the implications of consent order click here
September 2004
Section 2 and section 35 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004 came into force on the 22 September 2004.
Section 2 creates a new criminal offence of entering the UK without an immigration document which can lead to up to two years imprisonment. In England and Wales, children over the age of 10 (8 in Scotland) can be prosecuted under this provision. Click here to read more on section 2 and section 35…
Child benefit
The Child Benefit and Guardian's Allowance (Administration) Regulations 2003 were recently amended by Regulation 2 of the Child Benefit and Guardian's Allowance (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2004 . Asylum seekers with children granted refugee status who register a claim for child benefit and guardian's allowance within three months of being notified of their grant of refugee status will have their child benefit backdated to the date on which they first claimed asylum. Click here to view the Regulations.
August 2004
One off exercise to allow families who have been in the UK for three or more years to stay:
The Home Office has updated the eligibility criteria to remove a number of anomalies identified during the exercise itself and in the course of ongoing consultation with MPs and non-gouvernmental organisations. The deadline for applications is the 31st December 2004.
NASS- Revised Policy Bulletin 31 Dispersal Guidelines (children in school)
NASS has recently revised its policy on dispersal where an asylum seeker has dependant children in school (with effect from the 13th August 2004). See Education under 16- "Will NASS disperse a family if the child/children are settled in school?"
July 2004
A National Protocol on Inter-Authority Arrangements for Care Leavers was issued in July 2004 by the Department of Health and Department for Education and Skills.
The Protocol provides a model for managing joint working arrangements between local authorities where a care leaver resides outside the area of his responsible authority. Click here to access the Protocol on the Department of Health website.
June 2004
British Red Cross International Tracing and Message Service:
The British Red Cross International Tracing and Message Service has issued "Guidelines for restoring family links for unaccompanied and separated children" (June 2004) to clarify the role of the organisation in providing tracing services for unaccompanied and separated children.
Click here to access the guidelines on the British Red Cross website.
