As Parliament debates the final stages of the Illegal Migration Bill, CCLC says: The Government must keep meaningful limits on child detention We know that locking up infants and children is wrong because we have abolished it once before. In 2011, a Conservative-led government made ending child detention a flagship policy. It was right to do…
Leading children’s organisations and charities have written to the Home Secretary to express concern at plans in the Illegal Migration Bill to reintroduce child detention. They have condemned the child detention proposals in the Bill as ‘immoral’ and in breach of international law. Reneging on ban on child detention The coalition government committed to end…
The UK’s commitment to the Refugee Convention was undermined last year with the Nationality and Borders Act, and this new proposal goes further. It effectively puts a fence up around the UK’s asylum system, with no way in for children and young people seeking safety. Children who come to the UK with their families will…
The Justice and Home Affairs Committee recently published its report All families matter: An inquiry into family migration following its inquiry into family migration in the UK. The aim of the inquiry was to approach family migration policies in the widest possible sense, looking at general trends in the design of family immigration pathways, as well…
CCLC is concerned that the government may change child protection law to become the corporate parent of an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child
On 26th May the Home Office published new guidance to allow a fee waiver for the registration of some children as British Citizens. After years of campaigning and organising on this, Coram Children’s Legal Centre and Citizens UK welcome this important step. This announcement, following legal challenge by the Project for the Registration of Children as…
Coram Children’s Legal Centre warns that the Nationality and Borders Act, which received Royal Assent and has become law today, risks compounding harm to a significant number of children and young people as it departs from long-standing principles of international law as well as existing safeguarding frameworks in the UK. The Act has faced innumerable…
New immigration rules have been announced which will make it faster and more affordable for migrant children and young adults living in the UK to become settled. The introduction of these rules is a major victory for CCLC, young migrants, and children’s rights campaigners. The new rules, which will be effective on 20 June 2022,…
We were deeply saddened to hear of at least three children and one unborn baby dying in tragic circumstances last week in the English Channel. We express our condolences to all those who knew and loved those who lost their lives. CCLC works every day with children and young people who have fled conflict and persecution and we will do all…
The Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium is a coalition of organisations working to promote the rights of children. We are deeply concerned about recent reports of what is happening to unaccompanied children who are arriving in Kent. 26 July 2021 We know from news, reports and our members’ work that too many children are being held…
With less than a week to go before the deadline for applications to the EU settlement scheme, Coram Children’s Legal Centre is concerned that not all eligible children have applied. Applications from children have not yet met the numbers estimated to be needed in 2018, even though the number of applications overall has significantly outstripped…
A new study by the University of Wolverhampton has estimated that over 215,000 children are growing up in the UK without any formal immigration status. Some arrived in the UK as children and over half were born in the UK. Without their papers, children can access basic healthcare and go to school, but once they…