The Refugee and Migration Children’s Consortium (RMCC), a coalition of more than 100 organisations working with refugee, migrant and separated children, is deeply concerned about the impact of the Immigration and Asylum Bill on children, young people and families.
Our briefing for Second Reading of the Bill examines the impact of key provisions affecting children’s rights, including:
- Clause 18: Narrows the definition of family life for Article 8 purposes.
- Clause 19: Restricts how children’s family and private life is considered in Article 8 decisions.
- Clauses 23 and 24: Introduce powers to make recognised refugees repay the cost of their asylum support and accommodation.
- Clause 36: Introduces credibility provisions that risk child victims of trafficking being disbelieved because of delayed disclosure.
- Clause 38: Makes protection from public order disqualification dependent on a child’s immigration status.
- Clause 39: Removes the duty to grant temporary permission to stay (VTS leave) and further restricts access to secure immigration status for child victims.
- Clause 43: Removes the Secretary of State’s statutory duty to provide assistance and support to child victims of trafficking.
The RMCC is also deeply concerned about the proposed changes to the asylum appeals system in part 1 of the Bill and endorses briefings by the Law Society and ILPA on this.
The Government has committed to assessing the impact of its asylum and immigration reforms on children. We urge Ministers to ensure that this includes the measures in this Bill, takes the form of a Child Rights Impact Assessment using the Department for Education’s established template, and is published.
Read the full briefing here.