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Latest News - October 2011

A numbers game

Princess Diana's desire to help young people in need lives on in her memorial fund which recently provided a grant to research the age assessment process in Wales.

The study was carried out by the Welsh Refugee Council and examined how well age assessments and age disputes are handled, and the effects on children and young people.

Every year hundreds of children arrive in the UK without their parents. They come to these shores without papers; missing a formal identity to prove their age.

Commenting on the findings of the report, solicitor Victoria Pogge Von Strandmann of Maxwell Gillott who frequently represents the interests of young people undergoing age assessments said: "These young people seek refuge in the UK - they come looking for sanctuary and in desperate need of care. But determining their exact age is the key to their asylum claims and to unlocking the welfare provisions to which they are entitled.

Unfortunately, and all too often, the system fails to identify them as young people and they are tossed back into the sea to fend for themselves unless they know how to and are able to access legal advice from a welfare solicitor."

In a bid to identify the most pressing issues facing age disputed young people, the Welsh Refugee Council carried out a series of interviews with these young people, their advocates and lawyers.

The report found that:

• Current age assessment policy and practice is inadequate and inconsistent.
• Incorrect age assessments have serious repercussions on young people - children were accommodated with much older adults, were detained in immigration removal centres and were subjected to forced removal.
• Separated children in Wales have been wrongly assessed as adults and denied the safeguarding and welfare protections to which they are legally entitled.
• Many children missed out on vital education to which they were entitled.
• A number experienced serious mental health issues as a result of the process.

"There is a real need to improve the process of identifying young people through the age assessment process," said Victoria about the report, and added: "The effects and consequences for a child who has been assessed to be an adult cannot be over-estimated."

You can read the full report here: http://www.dianafund.co.uk/document.asp?id=1669&pageno

To find out more about how we can help you, please contact Maxwell Gillott Solicitors.