The number of unaccompanied children making dangerous journeys across the Channel to seek asylum in the last three years has increased threefold.
Kent county council (KCC) data shared with the Guardian has revealed that in the first five months of this year, 772 children crossed the Channel alone, compared with 242 children in the first five months of 2021.
These highly vulnerable children, who are likely to have fled war zones, have become separated from their parents and other family members. Those from countries such as Sudan, South Sudan and Eritrea are likely to have crossed deserts to reach Libya, where there is a high risk of being trafficked and imprisoned.
The true number of children crossing so far this year is likely to be higher than is reflected in the official data as some children are wrongly classified as adults by Home Office officials on arrival in the UK. The number of Channel crossings is at record levels compared with similar periods in previous years, with 11,095 people – adults and children – crossing so far this year including 316 in five boats on Thursday.
KCC confirmed that between 1 and 5 June they had taken 33 children who crossed in small boats into care – there were no crossings on either 1 or 2 June.
It has also emerged in a high court ruling on Wednesday – the fourth and final in a series about the welfare of child asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats – that an emergency process known as Trigger Point 4 has been activated several times this year on dates in March and April. This process, involving ministers from the Home Office and Department for Education, is triggered when KCC expects to reach full capacity to take in children within the next 72 hours.
The high court actions have brought an end to the Home Office practice of using hotels for about 5,000 children since June 2021. The Home Office closed its last hotel in January. During that period 440 children went missing from Home Office hotels and 132 have not been found. It is feared that some fell into the hands of traffickers.
The rulings found that both KCC and the Home Office acted unlawfully in various aspects of their dealings with this group of children.
The council has argued that it bears a disproportionate burden of responsibility for this group of newly arrived children owing to its geographical location. KCC has been given £47.63m in government funding to provide several new reception centres but these will not be available until later this year.
Under a system known as the national transfer scheme, this group of children were supposed to be dispersed fairly between different local authorities across the UK. But KCC has said that, despite the series of high court rulings, the scheme was still working too slowly and, as of March 2024, there were 4,952 available care places for these children across the UK out of a total of 13,870. KCC still has hundreds more children in its care than it should have based on the number it has been allocated.
Roger Gough, leader of KCC, said: “It remains Kent’s position that the scheme must be managed efficiently and effectively to transfer [unaccompanied asylum-seeking] children swiftly and safely to another UK local authority. This will ensure that these vulnerable children are looked after safely, that Kent’s children’s services are never unfairly overwhelmed again.”
Kama Petruczenko, of the Refugee Council, said: “The rise in the number of children arriving here who require protection and are separated from their families is deeply concerning. We regularly support traumatised children who arrive alone in Dover, having fled war, persecution and abuse.
“They have endured life-threatening journeys, and often arrive hungry, injured and in need of immediate help. A top priority for the next government must be to reduce these terrifying journeys by providing safe routes to the UK, including refugee visas, fairer family reunion rules, and increased resettlement places.”
A government spokesperson said: “We welcome this judgment and will continue to work with local authorities across the UK, including KCC, to support them to fulfil their statutory duties to accommodate unaccompanied children nationwide.”
