The Resettlement of Unaccompanied Refugee Children from France to Facilitate Family Reunification in the UK

*In 2016, the SOL program pivoted for the year to focus on political engagement in what was then called the “Political Engagement Pilot Project,” or PEPP. This was an alternative version of SOL that laid the groundwork for the development of the PEP program as it currently exists.

Problem Statement:

In spite of a hardening of attitudes on immigration since Brexit, many of the unaccompanied refugee children in France legally qualify for resettlement and reunification with their families in the UK under the Dublin Family Unification Regulation, and the recently proposed amendment to the UK’s 2016 Immigration Act called the Dubs Amendment. The latter proposed by Lord Dubs in 2016 allows 3000 unaccompanied refugee children to enter the UK legally. However, the UK Home Office, headed by Amber Rudd still has not completely implemented the Dubs commitment despite UNICEF’s constant research showing that Calais refugee children were risking their lives 2000 times a week to reach the UK, trying to stow away in trucks or jump on fast trains. While the UK Home Office is still in “active discussions” with the UNHCR and the French government to speed up mechanisms to identify, assess and transfer refugee children to the UK, the Calais camp has been completely demolished and the refugee children were bussed to 450 Centres d’Accueil et d’Orientation (CAOs), or “integration camps” across France. The French government justifies the continuous detention of these unaccompanied refugee children as temporary protection measure in the “child’s best interest”. Many human rights groups have reported that these unaccompanied refugee children are facing forced labor, and are being made to live with adults in camps. They are at huge risks of every imaginable horror: sexual exploitation and prostitution, drug addiction, malnutrition, physical injuries, PTSD, and mental illnesses.