UK Borders Bill

I realise that the amendment is technically about appeals. Nevertheless, it provides an opportunity to raise issues about the policy of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. We may be talking about 6,000 such children already in this country. The Local Government Association believes that the cost of maintaining them here is of the order of £50 million a year and it points out that the government grant which goes to local authorities undertaking the care amounts to only £12.3 million. Therefore, there is a huge burden on local authorities up and down the country which, in my view, should be borne as a national expense. I also inquire about what is supposed to happen at the end of the period in which the child can stay here. Is the age 16, is it 17 and a half, as was suggested, or is it 18? At the moment no one seems to know the answer to that question. To what extent have the Government considered whether such children will be safe if they are returned to their countries of origin on reaching the predetermined age? In the case of Vietnam, I think there are very serious doubts about that and the same may be true of Cambodia. Suppose a child ceases to be unaccompanied because, in the interim, other members of his family have arrived here. Is the intention still to return that child? Whatever the answers to these questions may be, it appears to me that by the time they reach the age limit, we will have invested large sums in each child. Therefore, why not let them stay in this country, if they wish to do so, as we have an ageing population here, which urgently needs more young workers to support it? In general, I am strongly in favour of the amendment.