Young refugees and asylum seekers

A long way to go: Young refugees and asylum seekers in the UK

Eleanor Stringer & Tristan Lumley

April 2007, 52 pages

Imagine you arrived in a new country, not sure of where you were and not speaking the language. Now imagine you are an eight-year-old child.

A long way to go, explores the reality of this situation, which affects thousands of young refugees and asylum seekers every year.

 

 

Did you know?

  • 8,000 children arrive in the UK each year claiming asylum—enough to fill eight secondary schools.
  • Young refugees and asylum seekers can be left without a school place for many months, despite having the same rights as other children in the UK.

The report highlights three areas where the work of charities is critical and donors can make an important contribution. These are:

  • supporting children through the asylum process
  • improving access to school places and other support, and
  • increasing refugee children's integration into the community.

 'I think sometimes when people talk about young refugees and asylum seekers they forget we are talking about children. One charity I met told me about a boy, Stefan, who had been forced to flee the Ukraine, hidden inside a tyre after both his parents vanished. He had not heard from either of them since arriving in the UK. Mpst of us in the UK can't even imagine what that must be like'
Eleanor Stringer, report author

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Charity insight

"More than two-thirds of all 11 to 16 year olds think that being bored makes young people more likely to cause disruption.''