Child migrants to be transferred across England

Child migrants arriving in Kent are being passed into the care of other councils for the first time in more than two years.

About 19 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are being transferred to other councils around the country.

Kent County Council (KCC) said the council was facing a "critical situation" over child migrant numbers.

The Home Office says it no longer discloses the numbers of child migrants arriving in Kent on small boats.

It is the first time that KCC has been able to send young migrants to neighbouring councils since April 2018, the Local Democracy Reporting Service says.

They are being transferred from KCC to the West Midlands, North West and East of England, with six going to neighbouring authorities in the South East, KCC said.

KCC's cabinet member for children's services, Sue Chandler, described the surge of young migrants entering the county as a "critical situation" for the authority.

She said: "If we see larger unaccompanied asylum-seeking child arrivals in the summer, our capacity will undoubtedly come under pressure again."

The council said its reception centres for young migrants were "breaking at the seams".

Pledges have been made by several local authorities to take on the responsibility for 90 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

More than 500 children

But Ms Chandler said: "That is of course only a fraction of those children that have arrived this year, so the work absolutely continues."

A total of 509 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are under the care of KCC, with nearly 50% of those arriving over the last six months, the council says.

The BBC has asked the Home Office to supply numbers of young migrants arriving on the Kent coast in small boats.

A spokeswoman said: "We no longer give details on minors.

"There are safeguarding concerns with identifying children and also it can be difficult to be confident of ages when people have only just arrived."

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