Safeguarding duty for Border Agency

By Sarah Cooper Wednesday, 02 July 2008

The government is to change the law to require the UK Border Agency to safeguard children following pressure from children's rights campaigners. The move is confirmation that ministers have acknowledged that the agency should have to promote the welfare of children.

Borders Agency will have to safeguard children

The government intends to include the new duty in the forthcoming Immigration Bill. As a result, a House of Lords amendment to the Children and Young Persons Bill that proposed the same thing will be removed.

Children's minister Beverley Hughes announced the change during a House of Commons committee stage debate on the Children and Young Persons Bill. She said the government had listened to the "thoughtful and powerful arguments" for making the UK Border Agency (UKBA) comply with section 11 of the Children Act 2004.

"Having considered the arguments fully, the Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families have agreed that aligning the UKBA with those agencies which are already subject to the section 11 duty is the right thing to do for children and young people," she said.

But Lisa Nandy, chair of the Refugee Children's Consortium, said: "We're disappointed at the delay and that it's not going through in the Children and Young Persons Bill."

Other campaigners welcomed the u-turn, but said there is more to do. Kamena Dorling, legal and policy officer at the Children's Legal Centre's Refugee and Asylum Seeking Children's Project, said: "We do welcome this, but are keen to make sure the duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children is the same in the Immigration Bill as in section 11 of the Children Act."

Nandy added the new duty could also have implications for the UKBA's Code of Practice for Keeping Children Safe From Harm, which outlines the measures immigration workers have to take in dealing with children. "The code of practice was only in relation to the safeguarding of children whereas section 11 says clearly that safeguarding and welfare are two sides of the same coin," she said.

Judith Dennis, policy adviser for unaccompanied children at the Refugee Council, agreed the new duty will mean the code will have to be rewritten.

- See Editorial, p17.