Tulip Siddiq
Main Page: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Highgate)Department Debates - View all Tulip Siddiq's debates with the Department for Education
(7 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Heidi Allen (South Cambridgeshire) (Con)
11. When she plans to publish the Government’s strategy on the safeguarding of unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children.
Tulip Siddiq (Hampstead and Kilburn) (Lab)
23. When she plans to publish the Government’s strategy on the safeguarding of unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Mr Robert Goodwill)
The safeguarding strategy, bringing together all work in this area and setting out further detail, will be published later this autumn.
Mr Goodwill
We had a general election this year, which derailed some of the timetables for these things, but it is certainly absolutely vital that all unaccompanied children seeking asylum have access to independent legal advice and are referred to the Children’s Panel.
Tulip Siddiq
Statistics from the organisation Every Child Protected Against Trafficking show that just in 2015, 593 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children went missing from care. Charities such as the Refugee Council and the Children’s Society have recommended that independent guardians be appointed for such children, to protect them in future. Will the Minister consider this in the safeguarding strategy?
Mr Goodwill
I was the immigration Minister until just recently and worked in this area. We were well aware of the fact that some of the relatives who took children in under the Dublin regulation had not had much contact with the families beforehand and that that might not have worked out very well, but I am certainly happy to look at what the hon. Lady is saying, particularly in the light of her experience with Amnesty and Save the Children.