More than 20 asylum seeker children arrive at Portsmouth port in 6 weeks

Social care bosses at Portsmouth City Council must provide homes for any child migrants coming into Britain alone via the ferry port.

For years the council has told Home Office officials it was struggling - and a lack of local foster placements meant it was paying to house children in London.

The authority had around 90 asylum seeker children on the books at any given time - when its allocation was 31.

The spike in clandestine arrivals – with children arriving in and under lorries – in August and September has forced the authority to outright refuse to take any asylum-seeking children into its care for fear of risking its care provision.

It comes as a report revealed 22 children arrived at the port in six weeks between August 18 and September 22, leaving the council with 96 children to look after.

This accounts for around a fifth of all children in the council’s care, said Alison Jeffery, the director of children’s services.

She told The News: ‘We were anxious about where this was going. We took the decision at the right time.

‘This was about preventing harm to children - not that we’ve experienced harm for children in a long time.’

Most of the migrants are older teenage boys but are under 18. They are mostly Sudanese, or Kurdish – from Iran or Iraq – or from Albania and Afghanistan.

Arrangements exist under the National Transfer Scheme protocol for other councils to take on the children - funded by government - but only 97 councils have offered 400 places across the entire country.

This has meant a shortage of local foster homes, with Portsmouth putting 38 migrant children in placements in London - raising the risk of exploitation and trafficking as social workers cannot have the same level of oversight. These external costs are not met fully.

Calls have now been made for the protocol to become mandatory, so as to take the pressure of councils in the same situation, including in Kent with Dover port.

Since refusing to take new arrivals from October 1, six youngsters arriving at Portsmouth port have been placed with other councils by Border Force and the Home Office.

Around 35 children have been transferred from Portsmouth’s existing caseload, a drop of around a third.

Council officers are confident they will not be penalised for the breach of legal duty under the 1989 Children Act.

Councillor Suzy Horton, cabinet member for children, education and families, said she was proud of the council’s work helping child asylum seekers.

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She said: ‘Many of these children have experienced significant trauma and our social care teams have developed skills to provide them with the strong support they need, as well as growing our dedicated foster care capacity.

‘We naturally want to protect all children in our city who need our help regardless of their route to us, so it was with great sorrow and regret that we had to acknowledge that we could no longer safely and properly meet the needs of all those for whom Portsmouth is their arrival point in the UK, together with those other children from the city who need alternative care.’

Kent County Council made a similar decision in August. The decision in Portsmouth arose over the conflict between a requirement to care for migrant children in the 1989 law, and the need under the 2004 Children Act to offer a minimum level for all looked after children.

When an unaccompanied minor turns 18, the council still must provide housing and care until they are 25. These costs are not met fully.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Our efforts remain focused on ensuring every single unaccompanied child receives appropriate support.

‘We have been working incredibly closely with Portsmouth City Council to move children into new local authority placements, where it is in their best interests to do so.’

The department said Britain does more than the European Union for unaccompanied children, and those in France should claim asylum there instead.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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