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Charity's work with age-related asylum seekers stopped

1 min read Social Care
The Refugee Council is "disturbed" by the lack of progress in providing services for age-disputed unaccompanied asylum seekers, after the UK Borders Agency (UKBA) ended funding for the charity's Children's Panel.

The panel, which works with separated children, as well as giving advice to those involved in their support. said it was "desperately concerned" that age-disputed young people would "fall through the gaps".

It is winding down its services due to the termination of its £250,000 annual funding, after the government said there was other support in place.

An age dispute occurs when the UKBA does not accept the age given by an asylum seeker, and young people involved in these cases receive support through the Refugee Council.

In a three-month period at the end of 2008, its Children's Panel found 42 per cent of the age-disputed young people it worked with in London were children, not aged 18 or over. Also, half of 20 said to be adults based on a UKBA visual inspection were found to be children.

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