The children in this study have all been in the transit camp in Calais – the caricatured ‘jungle’– living with up to 10,000 other people. They are all now dealing with the arbitrary bureaucracy of the Home Office, trying to make their asylum claims in the UK. Photo credit: Press Association/Chris Radburn. All rights reserved.
The door into Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit is on the corner of two busy roads near a hospital in north Manchester. Nestling between a barbers with a budgie in the window and a pharmacy, it is busy today. Lots of people go through our door. Inside the waiting room is full. Drinks and biscuits need topping up regularly as people sit and wait. There is something unusual about lots of the people waiting. They are children.
Although they have different accents, clothes, haircuts and skin tones the children have something in common. They have come to the UK to claim asylum and they have walked through the door to meet their legal representative - someone who will work with them to try and make sense of the letters, the appointments, the officials and the uncertainty.
