Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Children Research Articles

Development and Validation of the Adolescent and Children Risk of Abuse and Maltreatment Unaccompanied Scale (ACRAM-US)

AbstractIndependent migration of children and adolescents is becoming a political and social issue in recent years. Literature documents that the migration process of young people without an adult referent entail serious psychological problems. Moreover, the lack of coherence in the assessment and care processes aggravates the damage suffered by minors, which requires a greater investment of institutional resources. The aim of this research is to describe the development and provide psychometric properties of Adolescent and Children Risk of Abuse and Maltreatment Unaccompanied Scale (ACRAM-US), a 9-items scale for the assessment of risks factors of child abuse and neglect in the specific population of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and adolescents. Structural validity, reliability and convergent-related validity were studied for this measure in a sample of 128 unaccompanied children and adolescents. The sample included cases of 14 different nationalities. Children’s mean age was 16.94 (SD = 1.84), and 96.9% were male and 3.1% were female. Cases were informed by child welfare workers from different protective services in the XXXX Community (XXXX). The results of Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA) indicate performance better solution with 2-dimensions which was also in line with theoretical formulation (χ2 = 31.55, df = 19, p = .035, CFI = 0.991, SRMR = 0.081, RMSEA = 0.072, [90% CI: 0.019 − 0.115]). Results of convergent validity showed significant correlation with the Children Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF). Therefore, this study provides data of the first scale that assess risks factors of maltreatment for the unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and adolescents.

Infections in Asymptomatic Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Children in London 2016-2022.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are at increased risk of infections and experience barriers to healthcare access. There is a lack of evidence to underpin existing national and international guidance regarding asymptomatic infection screening in this population. We describe the results from routine infection screening of 1104 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children attending for testing at 3 London centers. We performed a retrospective analysis of routinely collected data from all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children seen in 3 services in London, United Kingdom, between 2016 and 2022. A total of 1104 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children attended clinic; all accepted screening. The median age was 16 years (range 11-18 years) and 987 (89%) were male. 407 (37%) had at least 1 infection; 116 (11%) had multiple infections. Tuberculosis infection and schistosomiasis were common (found in 18% and 17%, respectively). Hepatitis B infection was identified with a prevalence of 3.9%. Giardia 7.7%, tapeworm 3.3% and Strongyloides 2.8% were also commonly identified. We report the largest known dataset to our knowledge of infection screening in asymptomatic unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in Europe to date. This data supports recommendations for routine asymptomatic screening in this high-risk cohort, based on the significant prevalence identified of infections of both personal and public health significance.

Fast Feet Forward: A sports group for looked‐after children and unaccompanied asylum‐seeking children as an early intervention to process trauma and reduce distress

AbstractLooked‐after children (LAC) and unaccompanied asylum‐seeking children (UASC) are likely to have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in their developmental years, leading to poorer outcomes in their health and psychosocial development. A novel, exercise‐based early intervention utilising bilateral movements for UASC and adoptive children (An early intervention framework for the emotional health and wellbeing of unaccompanied minors, 2020) called Fast Feet Forward (FFF) has shown promise in providing relief from trauma symptoms. This study seeks to replicate the effectiveness of FFF and extend it to a new population of traumatised children. Two groups of FFF occurred with 18 children participating. Results revealed a statistically significant decrease in distress and an increase in positive cognitions for UASC, showing effective processing of trauma‐related hotspots. The LAC cohort also demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in distress and disturbance. Support is demonstrated for the efficacy of FFF as a cost‐effective and resiliency‐building early intervention treatment utilising bilateral movements for traumatised populations, especially UASC.

Looked after children: an overview for the dental team

Looked after children (LAC) are children and young people (CYP) who have been under the continuous care of the local authority for more than 24 hours. Reasons for becoming looked after include concerns about abuse or neglect, breakdown in family functioning, or absence of a suitable caregiver (for example bereavement, parental illness, or separation, such as for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children). Many LAC live with foster families, extended family, or in residential care homes, but a CYP can be legally 'looked after' and still be living with their original or birth family, or living independently with support. Regardless of the circumstances, the local authority has responsibility for meeting the needs of the CYP, including dental care, usually via a named social worker. The evidence available suggests that LAC are at higher risk of dental caries and pain. In 2021, Public Health England reported on inequalities in oral health in England and although evidence was limited, found LAC to have poorer oral health and access to care. It is important that LAC are considered for enhanced prevention and reviewed regularly to enable appropriate provision of dental care. Understanding who can consent for dental treatment is essential.

Looked after children: an overview for the dental team.

Looked after children (LAC) are children and young people (CYP) who have been under the continuous care of the local authority for more than 24 hours. Reasons for becoming looked after include concerns about abuse or neglect, breakdown in family functioning, or absence of a suitable caregiver (for example bereavement, parental illness, or separation, such as for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children). Many LAC live with foster families, extended family, or in residential care homes, but a CYP can be legally 'looked after' and still be living with their original or birth family, or living independently with support. Regardless of the circumstances, the local authority has responsibility for meeting the needs of the CYP, including dental care, usually via a named social worker.The evidence available suggests that LAC are at higher risk of dental caries and pain. In 2021, Public Health England reported on inequalities in oral health in England and although evidence was limited, found LAC to have poorer oral health and access to care. It is important that LAC are considered for enhanced prevention and reviewed regularly to enable appropriate provision of dental care. Understanding who can consent for dental treatment is essential.

Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children: Hotel Accommodation, Removal from Child Welfare system and Risk of Trafficking

Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children: Hotel Accommodation, Removal from Child Welfare system and Risk of Trafficking

Infectious disease screening outcomes and reducing barriers to care for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children: a single-centre retrospective clinical analysis

ObjectiveEvaluate the Unity Clinic’s infectious disease screening programme for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), calculate rates of infection and identify further health needs.DesignRetrospective audit of electronic patient data.Setting and patientsUASC who...

The cumulative proportion of children receiving social care services in England: a whole population administrative data cohort study.

ObjectivesChildren who receive social care services have high levels of need, but the proportion of the population they comprise is unknown. We aimed to estimate the cumulative proportion of children in England who ever become looked after (CLA) or placed on a child in need (CiN) plan by age 18.
 ApproachWe analysed longitudinal administrative children’s social care data: the CLA dataset (available from 1992) and the CiN census (from 2011/12) which respectively contain information on all children in England who become CLA and are assessed as being CiN. The number of CLA in birth cohorts from 1992 to 2016 was divided by Office for National Statistics population denominators to estimate the overall cumulative proportion and by EthPOP denominators to describe ethnic variation. Because of incomplete coverage of CiN data, we combined estimates from different birth cohorts, making reductions to the numerator to address left-censoring.
 ResultsThe cumulative proportion of children who became CLA before their 18th birthday was 3% for those born in 1992, rising to 4% for those born in 2000. For subsequent cohorts (who had not yet reached age 18), the cumulative proportion by earlier ages also rose over time, but plateaued with the 2012 birth cohort. The cumulative proportion varied by ethnicity: among children born in 2000, it was 18% for those of other ethnicity (many of whom were unaccompanied asylum seeking children), 11% for black children and 7% for those of mixed ethnicity. Most children first became looked after before age 2, with a secondary peak around age 16. Finally, we estimated that 42% of all children in England were recognised as CiN before age 18.
 ConclusionSignificant proportions of children receive social care services in England. The ethnic variation we observed may indicate systematic differences in how the care system responds to CLA from different backgrounds. These results have implications for service design, as well as preventive strategies to improve child health and well-being.

Pockets of love. Unaccompanied children in institutional care in Finland

This article discusses how needs for loving relationships are met for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in Finland. The data was collected through a focused ethnography with 13 unaccompanied children. The findings show that institutional protocols and practices fail to consider the need for love of these children, hindering their possibilities to create or maintain loving relationships. The findings also suggest that new loving ties could be created when individuals invested in them.

Mental health and child refugees

This paper presents an overview of the importance of mental health services for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the United Kingdom. It reviews what mental health support appears to be available in the United Kingdom following an on-line search which took place in Spring 2021 and using information gathered through 22 interviews and focus groups with stakeholders. The latter group are defined as people working with asylum-seeking children. The primary stakeholders were local authority staff, although interviews were also conducted with local government associations (London Councils, the Local Government Association), NHS bodies and the voluntary sector. Often, further relevant stakeholders were identified during interviews. The report details the aims, methodology and context, before the findings are presented which is followed by recommendations for improving mental and social care provision for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the United Kingdom.

Companions to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in Sweden – experiences of Swedish families

PurposeMany unaccompanied children have sought asylum in Sweden during recent years. They needed different kinds of support not only from the authorities but also from the local community. The purpose of this paper is to explore how families from local communities can support the children and be the neutral companion they long for.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews was adopted for this descriptive study. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.FindingsThe families wanted to know more about unaccompanied children than the information presented in the mass media. They showed deep engagement in getting to know the boys and strong affection for them because they got a sense of how difficult their lives were. Families with experience as parents can play an important role to guide the children into the Swedish society and be trustful adults who can complement the professionals in the authorities and accommodations. The families in this project needed more support through information and strategies about how to handle difficult situations during the children’s asylum process.Research limitations/implicationsThis study describes a pilot project in a small municipality in Sweden. The participating families described the support given to a group of boys. More studies should focus on support for girls in similar situation.Originality/valueThere are limited studies on how families in local communities can support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

Variation in initial health assessment of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children: a cross-sectional survey across England

ObjectiveTo assess variation in current practice of initial health assessments (IHAs) for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) across England.DesignCross-sectional survey.Main outcomes measuresType of routine assessment carried out, threshold to specialist referrals...

Questions on revamped national child asylum transfer scheme

Amid the recent surge of migrants across the Channel, the government has made compulsory a scheme to disperse unaccompanied asylum-seeking children across the UK after some South East councils were struggling to cope

Proposed changes to age assessment raise major safeguarding concerns for child refugees

The right to seek asylum from persecution is universal and protected under international law in the form of the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention.1 Human displacement is a multifactorial global...

Description and evaluation of a pathway for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children

Objective(1) To describe a novel integrated pathway for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC).(2) To evaluate a population engaged with this service.DesignDescription of the integrated pathway (objective 1) and retrospective evaluation, using...

Practitioners’ perspectives and needs: Developing skills to support unaccompanied asylum‐seeking children (UASCs) in experiencing ‘belonging’ in English educational spaces

This article builds on Yuval‐Davis’s (2006, 2007, 2011) theories of belonging, in order to relay how practitioners can support unaccompanied asylum‐seeking children (UASCs) in developing a positive sense of belonging in educational spaces in England. To do so, the article synthesises literature surrounding theories of belonging, UASCs’ educational access in England and practices supporting UASCs’ educational attainment and sense of belonging. Further, the article considers interviews with a social worker, English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) teacher, charity sector staff member, legal expert and government workers in East England, all of whom work with UASCs. Interview analysis seeks to understand how practitioners believe UASCs find a sense of belonging in the educational spaces that they inhabit. After presenting the interview findings, the article builds on scholarly literature related to supporting UASCs’ education by discussing how practitioners, including all staff who interact with UASCs in school, college or residential accommodation spaces, can work to facilitate UASCs’ sense of belonging in educational spaces in England. The article recognises that practitioners can do so through learning to speak with low‐level ESOL students, developing trauma awareness and reflexively approaching their relationships with UASCs. Thus, the article provides policy recommendations to support practitioners in doing so.

Integration from the perspective of young women who came to Sweden as unaccompanied asylum-seeking girls from Afghanistan. An interpretative phenomenological analysis

ABSTRACT There is a need for increased knowledge regarding refugee women’s experiences of integration. This study concerns young women who came to Sweden as unaccompanied asylum-seeking (UAS) girls, and how they understand integration and their everyday life. Six young women, age 19–24, who came to Sweden as UAS children in the period 2013–2015 participated in semi-structured interviews, which were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Five themes emerged: Relationships to family members; Being a minority woman; The importance of information; Integrating cultures; and Dreams and agency. Their everyday lives could be difficult, for example since interventions often targeted and were dominated by boys and men. Moreover, the participants sensed that they were in contradictory positions. While striving to integrate Swedish and Afghan customs they described expectations from parents and the Afghan community to live according to Afghan traditions. Despite being in vulnerable positions, they experienced independence and the capacity to change their lives and sought to contribute to equal rights for women. The participants described integration as a process, enhanced by their personal agency and by their social, relational, and material contexts. Based on the results, we discuss how integration can be supported.

Survivors of Hell: Resilience Amongst Unaccompanied Minor Refugees and Implications for Treatment- a Narrative Review

Approximately half of the world’s displaced population are children and a significant proportion of these are unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). UASC are the most vulnerable of all refugee populations. Up to 90% of UASC have been subjected to exploitation, including trafficking or being drafted into military groups. Having survived the perils of flight, UASC are confronted with continued challenges, including the uncertainties regarding their residential rights in host counties. Unsurprisingly, the prevalence of mental health problems is higher amongst UASC than in any other refugee group. Yet, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) appears to neither reach nor engage UASC. This begs for re-examination of what and how MHPSS is offered. Despite high levels of adversity, UASC often have considerable resilience, and make remarkable recoveries. However, literature exploring their resources or their own views of what helps or hinders recovery is scarce. In this narrative review, we explore individual and systemic factors promoting recovery in UASC. We consider theoretical understanding of resilience, emerging data and user perspectives. From these we deduct four areas of resilience in UASC: Individual factors – prosocial behaviour, problem-solving skills; Lifetime relationships – positive early family relationships, connection with family and country of origin, positive peer and adult relationships in host country; Acculturation – integration of own and new culture, positive relationships with prosocial institutions; Care arrangements – supported but less restrictive living arrangements. We suggest, MHPSS may need to focus on enhancing social networks, including connectedness with positive relationships in the home-country, life-history work with a focus on resource-building experiences in addition to trauma, and promoting integration of old and new cultural values. We also conclude that despite growing data, there is a gap in both eliciting user perspectives and understanding adaptive resources, especially those emerging during early development and within their cultural setting.

Rise in child refugees sparks calls for mandatory transfer scheme

Amid a rise in unaccompanied asylum-seeking children coming to the UK, council chiefs in Kent say voluntary national support scheme has failed and call for it to be made compulsory to share pressures around the country

Why “the Best Interests” of Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children are Left at the Border: Structural Violence and British Asylum Policies

ABSTRACT This paper examines the impact of the UK government’s asylum policies on unaccompanied asylum seeking children whose protection is supposedly guranteed by the UK’s ratification of The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and domestic law intended to secure “the best interests” of children. I argue that the government’s migration regime and associated policies and practices create additional links in an already long chain of structural violence directed at child asylum-seekers which takes the form of a myriad different types of routinized, bureaucratized and banal forms of violence which enmeshes and “harms” these children and which is aimed at preventing them from securing protection.