NINE Eritrean children are found in a lorry after driver calls police from Surrey motorway service station
*Officers discovered the children when they opened the rear doors to the vehicle
*Surrey County Council took the children into care but 'is struggling financially'
*It has more than 130 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASCs) already
*The children, who were with an adult, were found at the M25 Cobham services
By David Churchill For The Daily Mail
PUBLISHED: 01:55 GMT, 25 November 2017 | UPDATED: 09:42 GMT, 25 November 2017
Police found nine Eritrean boys in a lorry at a motorway service station in Surrey.
Officers made the discovery as they opened the rear doors to the vehicle, which witnesses said had a foreign plate.
Surrey County Council took the children into care but says it is struggling financially, with more than 130 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASCs) already under its wing.
The children, who were with an adult, were found at the M25 Cobham services where the driver stopped and called police. The adult was taken to an immigration facility.
Surrey County Council took the children into care but says it is struggling financially, with more than 130 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASCs) already under its wing.
The children, who were with an adult, were found at the M25 Cobham services where the driver stopped and called police. The adult was taken to an immigration facility. This image shows a South Sudanese refugee child stand at a UNHCR camp in Sudan's White Nile state
A lorry driver who witnessed the incident on October 13 said: ‘It was a foreign registered lorry and a policeman came along and opened up the back, then within about ten minutes there were three or four more police cars and you could actually see the people in the back. They looked African and quite young.’ A source said they were from Eritrea.
More than 4,200 child asylum seekers were in council care last year – a 54 per cent increase on the previous year. The surge has had a ‘significant’ impact in Surrey, said council leader David Hodge.
He said the care and support needed for UASCs, who can suffer from psychological problems, costs more than £50,000 a year per child and that the amount of money received from Whitehall was not enough. He said he has written to immigration minister Brandon Lewis, demanding more funding.
Refugees and migrants have been trying to find a way to Europe in the hope that their lives will be better there. These men were pictured leaving the Calais Jungle camp today
Mr Hodge said: ‘As you can imagine, finding the right care and support for these vulnerable young people – arriving alone from countries around the globe – is difficult and expensive work.’
The Home Office said that last year it increased funding to local councils by 20 per cent for unaccompanied asylum seeking children under 16.
Nine Eritrean children found in back of lorry after driver calls 999 Tom Herbert for Metro.co.uk
Children have been found in the back of a lorry (Picture: Joe Giddens/PA Wire)
Saturday 25 Nov 2017 9:12 am
Nine Eritrean boys have been found in the back of a lorry at a motorway service station. The driver rang police from the M25 Cobham Services and officers found the children, along with one adult, when they opened the rear doors.
They were taken into care by Surrey County Council and the adult was taken to an immigration facility. According to the Mail Online the lorry had a foreign number plate and the boys looked ‘quite young’. A lorry driver told the newspaper that around four police cars arrived within ten minutes of officers finding the children on October 13.
The people were found at Cobham Services (Picture: David Goddard/Getty Images)
Surrey County Council has seen a 54 percent increase on the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASCs) it looks after. Leader David Hodge says the council needs more money to look after them.
Mr Hodge said: ‘As you can imagine, finding the right care and support for these vulnerable young people – arriving alone from countries around the globe – is difficult and expensive work.’
In October, Kent Police found 15 people believed to be migrants in the back of a lorry at Medway Services in Kent. And earlier this year it was announced that 100 vulnerable refugee children have gone missing in the UK.
The Home Office said: ‘Last year we significantly increased the funding we provide to local authorities for the care of unaccompanied asylum seeking children.
‘Last year we increased the funding we provide to local authorities by 20% for unaccompanied asylum seeking children under 16, and by 28% for unaccompanied asylum seeking children aged 16 or 17.
| | | | Nine Eritrean children found in back of lorry after driver calls 999 By Tom Herbert for Metro.co.uk The driver alerted police from a motorway service station. | | | |
