CYP Now - Child migrants urge peers to vote against Illegal Migration Bill

Young people who arrived in the UK as unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have written to peers urging them to vote against the Illegal Migration Bill amid fears it will reduce protections for young minors arriving in the country.

'We are young people who have had traumatic journeys', former child migrants wrote. Picture: Lydia Geissler/Adobe Stock

In its letter to the House of Lords, ECPAT UK’s (Every Child Protected Against Trafficking) youth advisory group urges peers to vote against the Bill which could see child migrants detained for 28 days on arrival in the UK and refused residency once they turn 18.

“We are very worried about unaccompanied young people coming to the UK now,” the letter states.

“Plans to deny the right to claim asylum or leave to remain as a victim of trafficking, to detain young people, to accommodate children in hotels without care, to return them to unsafe places that they were forced to leave in the first place or to deport them to somewhere they don’t know will leave them unsafe, traumatised and fearful,” it adds.

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