Everyone who is resident in our communities, whatever their background or immigration status, should have the right to a safe, stable place they can call home. However, across Greater Manchester, as in the rest of the UK, there is a worsening homelessness crisis. Among those facing homelessness in our communities…
Why is this important? It’s estimated that there are 215,000 undocumented children living in the UK. At least 1 in 10 children in care in England are not British. Many of those children may have grown up in the UK, and may not even know that they are not British.…
“Experiencing hair loss in addition to irritation and pain with her skin”; “developing a lack of trust”; “feeling worried the majority of the time”; “feeling forgotten”. These are the words of social workers, talking about the children they care for and how they are emotionally and physically falling apart because…
Today, we published our new report, “Wasted childhoods: the impact of COVID-19 asylum delays on children in the North West of England”. We showed that children have been waiting well over a year to get a decision on their asylum claim. They came to the UK looking for safety, often…
Today we’ve published a new report, “Wasted childhoods: the impact of COVID-19 asylum delays on children in the North West of England”. You can download it here. Don’t have time to read the full report? Scroll down for our key findings and recommendations. It’s also been reported in the Guardian…
A year ago today, Manchester City Council signed a pledge to its children and young people affected by Brexit immigration changes. The pledge set out three practical commitments so that Manchester’s “looked after children and care leavers will not become part of the next Windrush generation.” A year later, as we…
In autumn 2018, we started talking to local authorities across the North West about how they support children in care and care leavers with insecure immigration status. Funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation (alongside Bristol Refugee Rights, The Children’s Society and PAFRAS in Leeds, and South London Refugee Association) we…
Year 9 students at the Co-op Academy Manchester have been exploring ideas of protest by writing about the refugee crisis in their English class. Inspired by Unicef’s story of Hiba, a Syrian refugee, they’ve written persuasive pieces arguing that the UK should welcome refugees. At GMIAU we loved reading these…
The least children can ask is that they are believed and treated as children, not accused of lying about their age.
The least children can ask is that they are believed and treated as children, not accused of lying about their age.