A high proportion of ’irregular migrant’ children were either born or have spent most of their childhood here.
An Oxford University study has put the number of children who were living in the UK without legal immigration status in 2011 at around 120,000 - about 0.9 per cent of the total population of children below the age of 18. The report suggests that the government's overriding priority should be to protect these children, despite their immigration status. Researchers from the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) conducted s with migrant children, migrant families, policymakers, teachers, GPs and support agencies in London and Birmingham. They discovered that a high proportion of 'irregular migrant' children, whose parents are living in the UK without authorisation, were either born or have spent most of their childhood here. Yet they found this group is trapped between conflicting laws that on the one hand protect children, but on the other enforce migration control. It suggests the children are at risk of destitution, exploitation and social exclusion because of contradictory and frequently changing rules and regulations which jeopardise their access to healthcare, education, protection by the police and other public services. Nando Sigona, the report's main author, said: 'Current immigration policy seems to override the concern for children's rights.
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