Cut off from justice: the impact of excluding separated migrant children from Legal Aid (2015)

Abstract

The research had the following three aims: 1. To increase knowledge and understanding of the nature of the changes to legal services for unaccompanied and separated migrant children since the implementation of LASPO (2012), the scale of the Act, and the profile of children at risk of being left vulnerable to a lack of access to justice. 2. To identify the main issues arising from these changes, including how they have affected immigration related processes, procedures and practices, the indirect consequences of the changes, and the impact they have had on children’s rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1989). 3. To consolidate multiple perspectives on the legal aid changes, drawing from the first hand experiences of children and young people themselves, local authorities, advocates and legal practitioners. The research process involved: A desk-based review of the context, scale and impact of the changes on unaccompanied and separated migrant children. Locating the legal aid changes within the broader framework of the international standards and obligations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Issuing Freedom of Information Requests to various public authorities as a means of getting baseline figures on the scale of the impact on unaccompanied and separated migrant children. Undertaking a survey with practitioners as a way of establishing baseline data about the frequency and circumstances of unaccompanied and separated children out of scope. Interviewing professionals across a range of legal, care and advocacy settings, concentrating on their experiences and perceptions of the ways in which the legal aid changes are directly and directly affecting the lives of unaccompanied and separated migrant children. Having conversations with separated and unaccompanied migrant children directly caught up in the changes about their first hand experiences of immigration processes and procedures and their hopes for others in the future.