The University of Liverpool’s Professor Helen Stalford played a major role in a House of Lords report condemning the UK and EU response to the plight of unaccompanied child refugees.
Professor Stalford, Director of the University’s European Children’s Rights Unit, acted as a Specialist Advisor to the four month enquiry.
Professor Stalford said: “The inquiry brings into sharp focus the failure of the EU, and particularly the UK, to respond appropriately to the plight of the most vulnerable victims of this ongoing refugee crisis.
“There were more than 88,200 applications for asylum in the EU by unaccompanied children in 2015 alone, and many more arrive in the EU and are not granted any protection at all. In 2015, the UK granted asylum or humanitarian protection to less than 450 of the 3043 children who sought asylum, representing a significantly weaker response that other Member States such as Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands.
“The report presents overwhelming and disturbing evidence of poor implementation by the UK and other EU countries of EU and international human rights obligations to provide children with quick access to legal advice and representation, schooling, medical care and appropriate accommodation.
“Underpinning these problems is a firmly entrenched culture of suspicion and disbelief and a failure to accept responsibility on the part of the authorities, coupled with a loss of trust on the part of children themselves.
“As a result, more than 10,000 unaccompanied children are estimated to have gone missing across the EU (a conservative estimate), whilst more than 340 unaccompanied children disappeared in the UK last year alone.”
The report details a series of recommendations for legal, policy and procedural reform at EU and UK level which are expected to be debated in the House of Lords in the autumn 2016. Find the full report here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201617/ldselect/ldeucom/34/34.pdf
