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The variety of youngsters crossing the Channel in dinghies is rising, Kent County Council says
A council says it cannot safely care for any more child migrants amid an increase within the quantity arriving alone in Kent.
Kent County Council stated it doesn’t have the capacity to care for any further unaccompanied asylum-seeking youngsters.
Greater than 400 youngsters, most of whom have arrived in Dover by small boat, have entered the authority’s care up to now this yr.
The council stated the accountability ought to be shared throughout England.
Below-18s arriving within the county alone are handed into the care of the native authority, with a small quantity later transferred to different councils that volunteer to assist.
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Greater than 400 unaccompanied asylum-seeking youngsters went into council care in Kent this yr
Kent County Council chief Roger Gough stated he warned the Dwelling Workplace his authority “anticipated to succeed in secure capacity to satisfy its statutory responsibility of care this weekend”.
The arrival of 13 more youngsters prior to now two days had “tipped the stability and the council merely can’t safely accommodate any more new arrivals,” he added.
The Dwelling Workplace has been contacted for remark.
It’s unclear what’s going to occur ought to more youngsters arrive within the coming days.
In Could, the federal government elevated the quantity given to councils to care for asylum-seeking youngsters after Mr Gough warned social providers in Kent had been vulnerable to being overwhelmed.
‘Excessive stage of arrivals’
Sue Chandler, cupboard member for youngsters’s providers, stated the voluntary nationwide switch scheme wanted to be made obligatory.
Whereas some youngsters had been moved to different areas in current months, “because of the continued excessive stage of arrivals, it has not been sufficient to make an actual distinction to the numbers in Kent,” she stated.
Mr Gough has stated the diminished quantity of freight crossing the Channel resulting from coronavirus has result in a rise within the variety of asylum-seeking youngsters arriving in Kent by boat.
Final week, 23 lone migrant youngsters had been taken into the council’s care in a single day.
Greater than 4,800 folks have crossed the English Channel in small boats this yr.
