CYP Now - Child refugees wrongly assessed as adults facing abuse and exploitation, charities warn

Child refugees are being wrongly assessed as adults and are facing abuse, harassment, and exploitation after being placed in adult hotels and detention facilities, a group of charities is warning.

Teenagers are being forced to live in rooms with unrelated adults, campaigners warn. Picture: Adobe Stock

Children as young as 14 are being forced to share rooms with unrelated adults “with no safeguards in place” to protect them.

This is leaving them “being left exposed to exploitation, abuse, and mental and physical harm”, found research carried out by the Refugee Council, Helen Bamber Foundation and Humans for Rights Network.

They say at least 1,300 refugee children are being placed in unsupervised accommodation and detention after being wrongly age assessed when arriving in the UK, according to figures for January 2022 to June 2023.

A group of 14 children who have been wrongly assessed and facing criminal charges of immigration offences under the 2022 Nationality and Borders Act were forced to spend time in custody in adult prisons, the charities found.

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