FFT's Work with Former Child Soldiers Highlighted

A lengthy report on BBC Radio Four's drive time PM programme, later repeated on the World Service and Five Live, has drawn attention to the MF's work with former child soldiers.

The item highlighted difficulties a young MF client from Uganda faced when he tried to claim asylum in Britain, and reported on proposed changes to the immigration rules that could make life tougher still for young asylum seekers.

The number of former child soldiers seeking the MF's help has more than doubled in the last five years to the figure of 28 today.

James - not his real name - was kidnapped as a young teenager by the rebel Lords Resistance Army after his parents were murdered and forced to become a soldier.

After being captured and tortured by government forces, he escaped to the UK only to find that Home Office officials did not believe what had happened to him.

"They asked me many times, they kept on asking it again and again. It was bringing back my memories... it was like they were tricking me," he told the BBC.

Volunteer MF therapist Susanna Rook said former child soldiers that she had helped were both victims and perpetrators. "They may have killed, they may have wielded guns...but they probably in all cases have been sexually abused and raped."

Of their treatment by the Home Office she said: "They must feel like they are on trial."

Measures that the Government wants to introduce in the care arrangements for some 3,000 children and adolescents who arrive unaccompanied in the UK each year to claim asylum include dispersing young asylum seekers, at present largely looked after in the South East and several other major cities, into the care of councils around the country. Foster care arrangements could also cease when a teenager reaches the age of 16, in favour of other types of support such as shared housing.

X-rays and dental checks are suggested as ways of determining the age of asylum seekers accused of being adults claiming to be teenagers to prolong their stay in the UK.

Discretionary leave to remain for those whose asylum claims have failed but who can't as minors be returned to their countries of origin could be scrapped for those aged 16 and over because, in the Home Office's view, once at that age failed asylum seekers are easier to remove from the country. And children from certain countries of origin, regardless of age, may be forced to return home.

In a formal response to the proposed changes, the MF has said they will "increase instability for our clients and interfere with their ability to come to terms with their experiences".