We are bringing a set of legal challenges to seek the proper protection of children without any parent or guardian who are seeking asylum in the UK.

A few weeks ago, a whistleblower reported that dozens of children had gone missing from a Home Office-run facility, with clear indications that they had been trafficked by criminal gangs. The government has admitted that it is unaware of the whereabouts of hundreds of children. 

This is an extremely vulnerable group of children, who are alone or separated from family. They may have fled war and conflict and often suffer from physical and psychological trauma. They are at constant risk of exploitation and trafficking, and the government has consistently failed to take proper responsibility for them. 

The Home Office has been accommodating unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in hotels for 19 months, despite describing it as a temporary and emergency measure in 2021. During this time, 4,600 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have been placed in hotels, 440 missing episodes have been recorded, and 200 children remain missing. 

We are working with Article 39 - a charity that fights for the rights of children living in state and privately-run institutions - on three separate legal actions to keep these vulnerable children safe, including challenging the Home Office’s controversial practice of housing unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in unregulated hotels. 

We have taken the initial step in a potential judicial review to hold the Home Office and the Department of Education to account for what has happened and challenge the ongoing unlawfulness of this situation. 

We are also supporting Article 39 to make a novel application to the Family Division of the High Court to ask it to make a group of the missing children 'wards of court'. If we succeed, these children will have Children's Guardians appointed to them who will have the power to ask the court to assist with locating them and to make welfare decisions on their behalf once they are found. 

And we are pushing for an urgent inquiry to be launched by Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights to examine what has gone wrong and how to stop it happening again. 

By bringing these three actions at the same time, we hope to provide immediate and vital protection for children at significant risk of exploitation and harm, hold the Government to account, and stop this from happening in the future

Details:

Good Law Project is working with Article 39, a children’s charity, to bring these three legal challenges. Article 39 has instructed Good Law Practice, Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC and Sarah Dobbie at Doughty Street Chambers, and Amanda Weston KC and Naomi Wiseman at Garden Court Chambers.

As well as paying our legal fees, ten percent of the sums raised will go to Good Law Project so that we can continue to use the law for a better world. As well as paying our legal fees, ten percent of the sums raised will go to Good Law Project so that we can continue to use the law for a better world. It is our policy to only raise sums that we reasonably anticipate could be spent on this litigation. If for some reason we don’t spend all the money raised on this case, for instance if the Government backs down or we win, the donations will go towards supporting other litigation we bring.