Children

A groundbreaking new project will help children who arrive in the UK to claim asylum and are without their parents. The Scottish Separated Children’s Guardianship Pilot will guide young people through the complex systems of asylum and welfare. Independent guardians will also ensure the young people have all the information and support they need to take an active role in their asylum claim.

The scheme is being delivered in partnership with Scottish Refugee Council and Aberlour Child Care Trust, with support from the Big Lottery Fund, the Scottish Government, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.

Daniel, 23, is from Cameroon. He was just 16 when he arrived in the UK and was abandoned by an agent who put him in a taxi and sent it to Scottish Refugee Council.

He says, “It took me more than a year to get to grips with the situation – I got transferred to the social work department, and they took me to one of the hotels in Glasgow. It was a place for homeless adults, and really not somewhere that I should have been.

“I didn’t understand how important the asylum process was these are things we don’t even dream of when we are back home. Asylum was a strange word to me.”

Read Daniel's full story here (word doc)

Read our press release about the launch here (word doc)

Welcome Information Pack for Unaccompanied Children Seeking Asylum

Updated March 2010

The welcome pack is for young people who are unaccompanied and seeking asylum who are residing in the Glasgow area. It is also a useful reference tool for adults supporting these young people. Originally launched in 2006, the pack has been updated in March 2010 to provide current general information about Glasgow and specific information about:

making an asylum claim;
rights;
a glossary of useful terms;
a directory of some of the relevant organisations supporting young people; and
several pull out maps referencing places in Glasgow, a step-by-step of the
asylum process and an outline of people who support young unaccompanied children seeking asylum.

The welcome pack is available to download chapter-by-chapter in English, Farsi, French, Pashto and Somali. Note that each section has a variety of images and it may therefore take a several seconds to download.

English

Click to read the introduction and table of contents in English (1.5Mb, PDF)

Click to read the welcome section in English (632Kb, PDF)

Click to read about your asylum_claim in English (1.9Mb, PDF)

Click to read the your about rights in English (1.8Mb, PDF)

Click to read the glossary in English (1.52Mb, PDF)

Click to read the directory in English (1.49Mb, PDF)

Click to read the map of Glasgow (672Kb, PDF)

Click to read the map outlining the asylum process (194Kb, PDF)

Click to read about the people supporting you in English (190.3Kb, PDF)

Farsi

Click to read the introduction and table of contents in Farsi (344Kb, PDF)