Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill

Written evidence submitted by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) (BSAIB09)

Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill 2025

and

Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children

Introduction

1. The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) represents over 21,000 social workers across the UK. ‘Social worker’ is a protected job title in law. Social workers undertake a generic qualification before undertaking further training in specialist areas of work.

2. Social workers have a range of duties, enshrined in law, for the care of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. This responsibility gives social workers a unique perspective on the needs and practicalities of service provision for this group.

Summary

3. The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill 2025 (‘the Bill’) could be further strengthened by explicit attention to ensure the needs of children (i.e. individuals under 18) are protected and safeguards are in place to prevent potential harm to children, in line with existing legislation and best practice. This briefing proposes two specific amendments to the legislation which would protect children while not undermining enforcement work against people smugglers and traffickers.

Context

4. People smugglers and traffickers cause untold misery. As a result of small boat crossings some 138 people have died in attempts to cross the Channel [1] . Other methods of transport (e.g. container lorries) have also resulted in multiple fatalities, for example, such as the deaths of 39 Vietnamese nationals in a lorry in Essex [2] .

5. The effect of widening the range of activities (e.g. ‘relevant articles’, ‘endangering another at sea’, ‘collecting information’) that potentially constitute a smuggling or trafficking crime is to risk including individuals who are not offenders. The Bill rightly allows for this by declaring a series of ‘defences’ for these activities which are not criminally motivated (e.g. Chapter 2,16 (6)).

6. Some 4017 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children claimed in the year to September 2024 [3] , joining some 4,500 unaccompanied children who claimed asylum in 2023 and the 5152 who claimed in 2022.

7. It is widely recognised that children (i.e. people under 18) can be exploited by adults. Here this might include:

· Transporting ‘relevant articles’ on behalf of an adult i.e. being a ‘mule’;

· ‘Endangering life at sea’ by holding the tiller on small boat crossing; and/or,

· ‘collecting information’ by using a sim card ‘loaned’ to him by an adult.

8. While children can be innocent participants, the UK also recognises children do commit offences, but this has to be held in conjunction with the reality that children also need special protection, and if convicted, age is taken into account in any criminal sentencing.

Current practice and Age Assessments

9. Once in the UK, the first contact for a young person claiming asylum will likely be an immigration officer. Immigration officers have their own age assessment guidance and are obliged to refer individuals who claim to be a child and whom they believe to be 19 or under.

10. The problem is that too often these ‘visual assessments’ are incorrect. A report by the Helen Bamber Foundation [4] showed that 1,300 referrals were made to Children’s Social Work Services from adult asylum accommodation in 2022 while a report from the Refugee Council [5] showed another 1003 referrals in 2023. Not all these referrals for an age assessment will result in individuals being assessed as children, but it does give a sense of scale of the problem. This is the experience of social workers undertaking full age assessments too: ‘adults’ who are age assessed to be children and conversely ‘children’ who are age assessed to be adults.

11. This is a particular issue when individuals are charged and detained in prison as adults but are subsequently age assessed to be children as was recently documented in a case report by Garden Court Chambers [6] . As well as being a violation of the rights of the child, it creates costs for both the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts as cases prosecuting the defendants as adults are found to be children and further costs for the state when the compensation claim is received for wrongful imprisonment.

12. Age assessment is a function of social workers. Age assessments by social workers first became formalised through case law (the Merton Judgement in 2023) [7] but then codified in primary legislation through the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and the Illegal Migration Act 2023.

13. Of course, adults do masquerade as children, and this seems more likely if they are likely to face criminal charges - but that is the purpose of the age assessment. If it were assumed all children who claimed to be children were in fact children, there would be no need for age assessment.

First proposed amendment to the Bill

14. At the point of arrest and detention if the individual claims to be a child, and appears to be under 21, a full age assessment should be undertaken by an appropriately experienced social worker as soon as is reasonably practicable. This consideration should be made on a case-by-case basis fully taking into account the wellbeing of the individual.

15. This amendment allows that the individual – who may be a child – may well be detained in a police cell or prison. Undertaking an age assessment while the individual is detained is not ideal, but it already occurs, and it is infinitely better than a child being in an adult prison for an extended period.

Second proposed amendment to the Bill

16. The National Age Assessment Board (NAAB) was created by the Nationality and Borders Act 2022. It provides an ‘in-house’ facility for the Home Office to undertake age assessment. Front line staff undertaking age assessments are social workers. The challenge with the NAAB is that being part of the Home Office there is a risk that age assessments are skewed and result in individuals being assessed as adults. The case report by Garden Court Chambers makes exactly this point [8] . Just as problematic is that when NAAB age assessments go forward in people smuggling and trafficking prosecutions the ‘expert witness’ on age is effectively the Home Office. In contrast, age assessments undertaken by social workers employed by local authorities demonstrate ‘clear blue water’ in matters of immigration and criminal cases and age assessments are truly independent.

17. BASW therefore has long taken the position that the NAAB should be abolished, and this legislation provides an opportunity to do this.

18. Any age assessment should be undertaken by an appropriately experienced social worker who is independent of the Home Office.

Thursday, 27 February 2025