- A vision of legal rights and entitlements for children and young people.
- Working in partnership with skilled pro bono lawyers to achieve this vision.
A world where every child and young person has access to their legal rights and entitlements? This is the vision of Kids in Need of Defense UK (KIND UK). The reality, however, is rather different.
KIND UK is a collaboration between five UK-based organisations specialising in children’s immigration and asylum law. These organisations are spread throughout England and Scotland. Coram Children’s Legal Centre is in London. The Migrant and Refugee Children’s Legal Unit is also in London and based at the Islington Law Centre. The Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit serves the north-west of England. The Central England Law Centre is based in Birmingham and Coventry. JustRight Scotland is a newly established legal advice charity in Glasgow.
The organisations harness the legal skills of lawyers working on a pro bono basis. KIND UK is partnered with KIND, a US charity supporting pro bono legal representation for children facing deportation proceedings alone. In the UK, it is estimated that there are 215,000 undocumented children and 117,000 undocumented young people, about half of whom were born here and almost all of whom have English as their main language and were educated here. All lack the security provided by citizenship and secure immigration status.
KIND UK is politically neutral and has the two-fold aim of protecting the rights and wellbeing of children and young people by ensuring access to good quality free legal assistance to navigate the complex immigration system, and to advocate for improved policy and practice in this area of the law. A recent study by the University of Wolverhampton and the Mayor of London (London’s children and young people who are not British citizens: A profile, indicates the extent of the barriers to social inclusion caused by unresolved immigration or nationality status for children and young people. There are whole areas of life which are affected by lack of documentation: there are problems in accessing higher education, in accessing health care, in opening bank accounts, in applying for a driving licence, applying for housing, and applying for jobs. An additional problem is that when reaching 18 years old, there is the threat of deportation to a country that they have possibly never lived in or even visited.
The human face of young people lacking documentation has been highlighted by the BBC and case studies set out on the BBC website (see Raised in the UK - barred from university (23 June 2020)). Education is not the only area where there are difficulties for the undocumented, but the concentration on barriers in respect of higher education and the dilemmas produced by being undocumented, together with the consequences of being in limbo, starkly set out the problems.
Michael (a pseudonym) is the child of Nigerian parents brought to the UK when he was 12 years old, and he had what he describes as a young person’s life in London. He was a high achiever at school, with aspirations of further education and a well-paid job. When doing his applications to university he found that he did not have any documents and there was no way to obtain them. He was not a British citizen; he was not a refugee; he did not have indefinite leave to remain. Hanna (also a pseudonym) was nearly 13 when she was brought to the UK and she hit a similar brick wall. She says that she ‘had become British’ but she concluded that ‘without the right documentation, that doesn’t really matter.’
There is a growing national pro bono movement that is addressing the needs of migrants or UK-born children living in the UK with unresolved immigration status. At present there are 414 lawyers taking on cases (the target is 500) from 20 firms of solicitors. There is a comprehensive mentoring system of lawyers working with KIND UK. The pioneering work with partner law firms—mirroring the position in the US—has shown that it is possible to develop a national model of pro bono engagement.
Undocumented children and young people live throughout the UK, as can be seen from the spread of organisations taking part in KIND UK. For example, in 2020 the West Midlands has more than doubled the number of cases taken in the previous year. Issues raised can often be complex and the Central England Law Centre and its partner firms have worked on 20 complex applications for children unable to prove that they are already British and for children applying for citizenship on a discretionary basis. There is, however, very little specialised legal representation for such cases outside London.
KIND UK is an influential voice and an acknowledged expert in its field, and it has developed strong alliances with other organisations. It has reached a level of stability in service provision, and now seeks to become an organisation that can effect changes in policy. It only provides services that are not eligible for public funding or where public funding is inadequate or inaccessible. The limitation on legal aid entitlement means children and young people do not always qualify for free and specialist legal help with citizenship and immigration. Rarely do those affected have the money to pay for themselves. Applications for leave to remain cost £10,000 over ten years, and registering as British costs £1,012.
So what happened to Michael and Hanna? After leaving school, Michael spent his time volunteering and secured limited leave to remain last year. He will not be eligible for any student finances to study for a further two years. While studying he will have to seek to extend his leave to remain and he will have to reapply for legal status every two and a half years for ten years, paying £2,000 each time. He will then be eligible for indefinite leave to remain. If he does not reapply he will lose all the years he has built up and will have to start again from the beginning. Hanna is not allowed to work and relies on relatives and friends for financial support. She is gathering proof of her presence in the UK so that when she has lived in the UK for 20 years, she can apply for limited leave to remain; there are six years to go.
The objective of KIND UK is to ensure that fewer children and young people will experience barriers to social inclusion because of their immigration status.
Keith Wilding is a retired fee-paid tribunal judge and a trustee of the Central England Law Centre (CELC). This article was written in collaboration with Katie Fennell, National Coordinator for KIND UK.
