Introduction

Unaccompanied young migrants face significant uncertainty and harm not just in and during their journeys from their countries of origin, but in their experiences within the care and immigration systems in the UK, and in their everyday lives, especially when making the transition to adulthood. Following on from the previous chapter, which looked at the legal complexities of their immigration status, this chapter discusses the provision of care and protection for unaccompanied young migrants within current legal and policy frameworks. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (UNCRC) and domestic child welfare legislation, such as the Children Act 1989, provide a framework for the provision of state services; however, children's experiences of care and support services vary greatly (Children's Commissioner for England, 2017).

This chapter will focus on practice within the context of the Children Act 1989 and other relevant legislation in England, but reference is made to other countries in the UK. A central issue is the tensions between immigration and care priorities, particularly in relation to social workers responsible for safeguarding and promoting the child's welfare within local authorities experiencing increasing financial cuts and influenced by wider political discourses and government policies. Consideration is given to how children are constructed as ‘deserving’ or ‘undeserving’, and how these constructs impact on the care and support services received. While the vulnerabilities of unaccompanied young migrants and their needs as individuals for tailored support services must be recognised, their agency in making decisions about their own lives must also be acknowledged. The challenges and opportunities for achieving this in the current political, policy and practice contexts will be critically examined in this chapter and many of the issues raised are discussed in more detail in subsequent chapters in Section 2.

Legal and policy frameworks for the provision of care and Protection

Unaccompanied migrant children arrive in the UK and come to the attention of state services in various different ways. Some will come as part of government programmes. Many other young people will arrive via clandestine routes such as in the back of lorries, and are found by authorities where they are dropped off. Others who are trafficked in order to work in illegal enterprises may be discovered by police during raids – for example, the many Vietnamese boys working in cannabis factories.