The UK government’s asylum and immigration reforms
The RMCC is deeply concerned about the government’s proposed asylum and settlement reforms, as outlined in Restoring Order and Control and A Fairer Pathway to Settlement. They would have profound and damaging consequences for children’s rights, wellbeing, and long-term integration. Prolonged insecurity, repeated status reviews, restricted access to family reunion and public funds, and extended routes to settlement would undermine children’s need for stability, disrupt education and development, exacerbate poverty and harm mental health.
Unaccompanied children wrongly treated as adults
Our new report, ‘Lost Childhoods‘, shows that child refugees who come to the UK alone are continuing to face harassment, abuse and criminalisation as a result of being wrongly treated as adults and placed in accommodation with adult strangers. The report reveals that in the first half of 2024 alone, over 262 children were deemed to be adults after a Home Office visual assessment and subsequently found to be children when referred to local authorities.
A strong and united voice for refugee and migrant children
The RMCC began as, and remains, a lobbying group that brings together organisations with expertise in refugee and/or children’s issues. Together we contribute to the debate on how refugee and migrant children’s rights can best be protected in an increasingly hostile environment. Read about the past work of the RMCC and its future.