Thousands of EU children ‘could become undocumented’ after Brexit
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A British children’s legal charity has warned that thousands of children of EU nationals risk becoming undocumented after Brexit.
Coram Children’s Legal Centre expressed concern that vulnerable children could become undocumented in the same way as the Caribbean children who came to the UK decades ago only to suffer at the hands of the Home Office’s hostile environment decades later.
An estimated 900,000 EU national children are in the UK with about 285,000 born in the country.
Coram fears that children in foster care, in care homes, and others from vulnerable families could slip through the net of the new Home Office registration scheme for EU nationals after Brexit.
The Home Office estimates that between 10% and 20% of all applicants will be vulnerable, unable to provide documentary evidence of their time in the UK.
About 5,000 children of EU nationals are separated from their parents and are in care and Coram is calling on the government to force local authorities to identify them now in order to get their settled status before the cut-off point in 2020 or 2021.
Coram assisted the Home Office trial of the new settled status immigration category for EU citizens currently resident in the UK which will be rolled out nationally from 30 March.
During the test, one in five children it assisted did not have the necessary documentation for the Home Office and more than half needed legal advice.
Coram said another category of children who are vulnerable to Brexit are those who are unable to prove the length of their stay in the UK could also be penalised and be awarded “pre-settled status”, a category for EU citizens who have ben in the country for fewer than five years.
Another category of children made vulnerable by Brexit are those eligible for British nationality but without the resources to establish their citizenship. Coram wants the government to waive the £1,012 fee for all EU children eligible to be British.
