Child Refugees Severely Distressed by UK's Apathy

A recent report is accusing the U.K.’s Home Office of purposefully keeping child refugees from the demolished Calais camp in the dark about their status, which has had negative psychological and physical effects on them.

After visiting 12 centers in France, researchers found that children waiting for their U.K. applications to be processed by Home Office officials were constantly being denied information, leading to high levels of distress. As aresult, many children as early as 13 had chosen to run away from the centers, while others displayed severe psychological problems and self-harming. In one occasion, a child had to be hospitalized, The Guardian reported.

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“It was clear from our observations that the Home Office was purposefully remaining silent on important issues that directly affected unaccompanied minors,” the report by the charity group Help Refugees stated.

The findings have led researchers to suggest that this is a “deliberate” ploy by the Home Office to minimize their work by having “less children to deal with.”

“They never wanted to let these children into the U.K. in the first place,” Liz Clegg, Help Refugees member, told The Guardian.

Documented instances of this deliberate neglect included inconsistencies in the process itself, where some children were made to wait over four months before receiving any word, while others were processed and allowed into the U.K. in mere weeks.

In another instance in October, a bus with 29 children ready to enter the U.K. inexplicably turned around at the last minute. The minors were scattered across France centers, lost and with no idea of when they might finally make the trip to be reunited with family members.

Many children have also decided to run away from the centers due to poor conditions like lack of proper clothing and food. According to Clegg, many of the children have tried to head back to Calais, while others have relocated to Northern France where they are now “sleeping in ditches, sleeping rough with nothing.”

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More than 1,000 children were placed into hostels and elder folks’ homes across France in November, after the refugee camp in Calais – notoriously known as the "Jungle" – was demolished by French authorities. Though more than 10,000 people from conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East lived there for several months, officials had not come up with a comprehensive relocation plan before destroying it.

Home Office officials were charged with transporting many of the children to the centers across France. But after dropping them off, officials left them with no idea of when they would be processed or approached again, much less when they would be allowed into the U.K.

“The Home Office has offered no explanation for this,” the report stated. “These minors are understandably confused, frustrated and losing faith in the system intended to protect them.”