Policy, Campaigning and Influencing

Receiving a positive decision from the Home Office should be a time to rebuild your life and fulfil your potential. Instead, for most refugees it's a time of crisis and extreme distress. The asylum backlog and subsequent efforts to process high numbers of claims putting extraordinary pressure on homelessness services, coupled with years of underfunding of local authorities and housing, means that people leaving asylum accommodation are facing homelessness in unprecedented numbers. Current asylum support and housing law and policy prevent young refugees from receiving local authority support or being able to find private rented accommodation. We are working towards significant policy reform so that at this crucial point of transition, young refugees can move on with their lives and flourish.   

“Since I was granted status, I have been homeless. It has been difficult to find a room due to how fast and expensive everything is. I know that I still have a long way to go in dealing with what has happened to me in my life -  I hope that once I have a stable home, I will be able to feel calm.”   Young person at Young Roots 

When young people arrive in the UK to seek safety, their age may be questioned, especially in the absence of formal identification. They may be interviewed and assessed by different professionals trying to decide how old they are, including by the Home Office, by Social Workers working for local authorities, and - since the introduction of the National Age Assessment Board – by Social Workers employed by the Home Office.  

Many young people we work with at Young Roots are told that they are not the age they know they are. Incorrectly assessing a child to be an adult can have catastrophic consequences with regards to access to care, their health, education, safety, development, trust in professionals, protection status and life chances.  Children who are wrongly deemed to be adults are placed in unsafe adult asylum accommodation with strangers. They are channelled into the adult asylum system, without the extra provision which children are entitled to in this complicated and high-stakes process. They find it much harder to access education. They are not able to receive care from the local authority as children, and do not benefit from the support that care leavers receive (which leads to long-lasting negative impacts as they struggle to navigate the adult world with little support).   

We are working to improve policy and practice on age disputes - so that age assessments only take place when absolutely necessary, and when they do take place they are done fairly and appropriately. You can read our three reports on age assessments here.  

"I was told that they don’t believe my age and they gave me an age that makes me an adult. It was so strange to me to have a conversation and argue about my age, let alone having to go to court for it later...  I was so terrified that it was difficult for me to even tell my story and communicate my problems and feelings. Having to argue with adults about my age in a new country was so traumatising that I lost trust in people. I remember I was crying all of the time, I was lost and confused and seeing no hope in anything.” - Young person at Young Roots 

The passing of recent legislation, such as the Nationality and Borders Act (NABA, 2022); the ‘Illegal’ Migration Act (IMA, 2023) and the Safety of Rwanda Act (2024) are a dismantling of the principles and processes of protection. 

The right to safety is important for everyone, but at Young Roots we see clearly how damage forced displacement, unsafe and exploitative journeys to the UK, and cruel domestic policies do to young lives. Young people need to be able to rebuild their lives here, and should be able to feel safe. Recent legislation destroys the ability of young people to heal, grow, and think about their futures.   

We need a clear commitment from the government that they will uphold the right to asylum – here in the UK, with no ‘off-shoring’ of the asylum process – and enable people to access justice by ensuring everyone who needs it can access free, specialist legal representative.  

“The only thing I want is safety. Safety and protection” - young person at Young Roots