{"id":685887,"date":"2022-06-05T06:57:41","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T06:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=1601918"},"modified":"2022-06-05T06:57:41","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T06:57:41","slug":"the-home-office-may-be-trying-to-deport-unaccompanied-children-to-rwanda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/06\/05\/the-home-office-may-be-trying-to-deport-unaccompanied-children-to-rwanda\/","title":{"rendered":"The Home Office may be trying to deport unaccompanied children to Rwanda"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-beyondwords-player=\"true\" contenteditable=\"false\"><\/div><p>The Home Office is allegedly trying to deport unaccompanied minors to Rwanda.<\/p>\n<p>Charities claim there&#8217;s a \u201cworrying pattern\u201d of the government classing asylum seekers younger than 18 as adults.<\/p>\n<p>The refugee charity Care4Calais is currently engaged in an age dispute with the Home Office over two teenage boys. The Home Office has issued the boys notices of removal.<\/p>\n<p>The boys say they&#8217;re 16. But the Home Office \u2013 after undertaking age assessments \u2013 claim they&#8217;re 23 and 26 respectively.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"hiCLjaZ99SqTRu00eO7GeSBdmLnYbcguDr3qNA3DO2HlEzXUjVQsAWNs7iwavgEUy6fPob\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Our lawyers will fight for that. One 16 year old saw his brother killed in front of him when his village was raided in Sudan. He escaped and went back later to find the whole village gone.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Care4Calais (@Care4Calais) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Care4Calais\/status\/1533036498018349056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 4, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED END Twitter --><\/p>\n<h2>Children classed as adults<\/h2>\n<p>In a statement, charity Care4Calais pledged to use its lawyers to challenge the notices. It said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>One (of the) 16-year-old (boys) saw his brother killed in front of him when his village was raided in Sudan. He escaped and went back later to find the whole village gone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Anti-trafficking charity Love146 UK similarly expressed alarm over the government\u2019s age assessment system for asylum seekers.<\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED END Twitter --><\/p>\n<p>Campaigns manager Daniel Sohege told the <em>Guardian<\/em> the charity is seeing children \u201cas young as 14 being incorrectly age-assessed as 23\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He added:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The number of children we have seen who have just had 1999 put down as their date of birth when they are clearly under 18 is highly concerning, and putting young people at risk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Lauren Starkey, a social worker for the charity, told the newspaper:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It is not within the realm of possibility that anyone, especially someone trained in child protection, could look at the children we have seen and believe they are in their 20s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Disregard for human rights and rule of law<\/h2>\n<p>The <em>PA<\/em> news agency has asked the Home Office for comment over the charities\u2019 remarks.<\/p>\n<p>The Home Office claims it won&#8217;t remove any person from the UK if it&#8217;s \u201cunsafe or inappropriate\u201d to do so. And it denied that unaccompanied minors will be among those sent to Rwanda as part of the government\u2019s potentially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/uk\/analysis\/2022\/04\/24\/priti-patels-plan-for-sending-refugees-to-rwanda-is-discriminatory-and-illegal\/\"  rel=\"noopener\">illegal scheme to process migrants offshore<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED START Image --><\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED END Image --><\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, Home Secretary Priti Patel said she&#8217;s \u201cabsolutely determined\u201d that the UK will send migrants to Rwanda. That&#8217;s despite the prospect of legal challenges from human rights groups.<\/p>\n<p>The Home Office has begun formally notifying migrants of their removal to Rwanda. And the first deportation flight is expected to depart on 14 June.<\/p>\n<p>The government described the move as the \u201cfinal administrative step\u201d in its partnership with the east African nation. It will see the government permanently shipping off people it deems to have entered the UK &#8216;illegally&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED START Image --><\/p>\n<figure id=\"embedded267273270\"><img src=\"https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/4ac42d50899817b33afc172e6d74590aY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjU0NTAxMjc1\/2.67273270.jpg?w=640\" sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/4ac42d50899817b33afc172e6d74590aY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjU0NTAxMjc1\/2.67273270.jpg?w=320 320w, https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/4ac42d50899817b33afc172e6d74590aY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjU0NTAxMjc1\/2.67273270.jpg?w=640 640w, https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/4ac42d50899817b33afc172e6d74590aY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjU0NTAxMjc1\/2.67273270.jpg?w=1280 1280w\" alt=\"A group of people thought to be migrants being brought in to Dover, Kent\" data-title=\"Migrant Channel crossing incidents\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Gareth Fuller\" data-usage-terms=\"FILE PHOTO\" \/><figcaption>Nearly 10,000 refugees have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the English Channel in small boats (Gareth Fuller\/<em>PA<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><!-- EMBED END Image --><\/p>\n<h2>Effective deportation<\/h2>\n<p>Court action from human rights groups could hold up removals. But Patel said she is \u201cresolute\u201d about delivering the scheme \u201cfor the British public\u201d. She also claims that &#8220;it\u2019s exactly what the British people want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Patel described the deportation policy as a \u201cthe first of its kind\u201d. However, a similar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/global\/world-analysis\/2022\/04\/25\/before-shipping-asylum-seekers-to-rwanda-the-uk-must-heed-lessons-from-australia\/\">policy in Australia has seen many human rights abuses<\/a> and billions in costs.<\/p>\n<p>The policy will see asylum seekers deemed to have entered the UK by illegal means sent to Rwanda. Their asylum claims will be processed for residence in Rwanda, not the UK. If successful, they will be granted asylum or given refugee status in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Those with failed bids will face deportation to the home countries from which they fled.<\/p>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/thecanary\/\">The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/uk\/news\/2022\/06\/05\/home-office-accused-of-attempting-to-deport-unaccompanied-minors-to-rwanda\/\">The Canary<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UK charities say there is a \u2018worrying pattern\u2019 of children being categorised as adults by the Government\u2019s flawed age-assessment system.<\/p>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/thecanary\/\">The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1541,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5588,18349,365,3056,5612,4,26583,3057,238,3254,1395],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685887"}],"version-history":[{"count":147,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":715333,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685887\/revisions\/715333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}