Chapter 7: In Whose Best Interests? The UK’s Implementation of Child Rights for Unaccompanied Minors Amidst Competing Legal, Economic, Social and Humanitarian Considerations

Article 3 of the UNCRC requires member states to observe the ‘best interests of the child as a primary consideration in all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies’. This chapter assesses how the UK’s immigration policy and practice discharges its obligations under the CRC with regard to its dealings with unaccompanied minor asylum seekers and refugees. After historically contextualising the interplay between international and national child rights legislation, this chapter explores the challenges arising from the Home Offices decision to outsource parts of the immigration service to the private sectors specifically around age determination, thus adding economic imperatives to polarised politically emotive migration discourse. It concludes that despite clear guidance from the British Courts to prioritise the best interest of the child; in reality, it is difficult to hold the State accountable for its implementation.