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[LONDON, 5 November 2007] - Children who have survived torture and who are unaccompanied asylum seekers in the UK are at risk of further traumatisation and return to the very countries they fled because of a lack of access to appropriate legal representation. The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture reiterated its calls for specialist legal representation for unaccompanied asylum seeking children after the head of the Legal Services Commission shrugged off criticisms that they were being failed by the system. Carolyn Regan told the Law Gazette that the "many legal advisers" working with children were some of the "highest-quality practitioners". Her comments were made in response to a new report from the Children's Society exposing a major shortage in lawyers skilled in both immigration and children's law. Syd Bolton, Children's Legal and Policy Officer at the MF, said Regan's comments ignored the experiences of children seen by the MF. Her comments also contradicted assurances given to the MF by her organisation that it would seek to improve the quality of legally aided advice for asylum seeking children. "Currently, there is no specialist training for legal representatives working with children seeking asylum in the UK, let alone for those working with children who have survived torture," said Mr Bolton. "Very few legal representatives prepare a case for a child in a child specific and appropriate way, whether that's how they take statements from children or how they understand the legal differences between a child and an adult asylum seeker. "There are many children who we come across whose lawyers close their cases having decided that their case doesn't have sufficient prospects of success to be represented at a tribunal. "In coming to that conclusion, many representatives are misapplying the Controlled Legal Representation (CLR) merits test. The fact that a merits test exists at all for children undermines the principle that all children should have legal representation throughout proceedings, irrespective of the outcome of their claim, to ensure they have an effective voice throughout their case. Merits tests and success rate targets put undue pressure on lawyers to ditch cases that are assessed as being potentially unsuccessful." Children's cases can often be passed between several different lawyers before a successful outcome. Those who are refused asylum but granted short periods of discretionary leave to remain in the UK can then find themselves placed in an adult process by the time a decision is made on their case, with no due consideration for the fact that they were tortured as a child and applied for asylum as a child. Mr Bolton added: "We want all claims where children are involved to continue to be treated procedurally and evidentially as children. They should also have a legal guardian whose duty it is to ensure that the child has effective legal representation from day one until the final outcome of the case." Last year, the MF received some 160 new referrals of children fleeing almost 20 different countries. [Source: Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture] Further information
pdf: http://www.torturecare.org.uk/news/latest_news/1278