Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

More unaccompanied children seeking asylum arrived in Britain last year than in any other European Union country, a report published today claims.

A fifth of all young people seeking asylum in the bloc did so in Britain. The numbers were driven in part by the rise in migration across the Channel.

The number of unaccompanied children seeking asylum rose by 19 per cent last year to 3,650, a report from the European Asylum Support Office says.

Young people from Eritrea accounted for the biggest proportion on 584. The report shows that Britain took in 22 per cent of all unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in the EU.

Roger Gough, leader of Kent county council, said that the number of migrants crossing the Channel had increased significantly in the past year, putting pressure on council facilities. For the first time in more than two years, child migrants arriving in Kent were passed into the care of other local authorities. The council said that it was facing a "critical situation" because the number of child migrants had doubled in a year.

Unaccompanied child migrants up to the age of 15 are often placed with a foster family. Those aged 16 and 17 are housed temporarily in reception centres. Some may later go into foster care but others are given their own accommodation or "assisted living" place.

The report shows that 92 per cent of the 485 unaccompanied Vietnamese minors arriving in the EU had landed in Britain. The UK took 69 per cent of 760 minors arriving in the EU from Iran.

Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: "We should never think twice about offering safety to children who are alone and fleeing war and persecution.

"The government must open up more safe and legal routes for unaccompanied young people and expand other routes to safety for refugees such as the UK's hugely successful resettlement programmes."

The report said that overall applications for asylum in the EU rose by 11 per cent last year to 738,000, followed by a 16 per cent increase in the first two months of this year. First-time applicants increased on an annual basis for the first time in four years, with Germany topping the list with 142,000. France followed on 119,000, Spain with 115,000 and Greece recorded 74,000. Britain was fifth on the list with 42,000 first-time applicants.

The number of pending applications in Britain rose by 47 per cent to 56,000.