Legal Advice and Representation

Asylum-seeking children in Wales, especially those who are unaccompanied, face serious barriers in accessing legal advice and representation. Despite their entitlement to legal aid for asylum claims under UK law, many struggle to access this support due to systemic gaps and a significant decline in immigration legal services across Wales. These challenges undermine the 2023 recommendation by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which urged the UK and devolved governments to ensure that asylum-seeking children receive age-appropriate legal advice and access to justice.

In Wales, legal aid providers specialising in immigration are scarce and unevenly distributed. Research undertaken by the Bevan Foundation has highlighted the rapid decline of immigration legal services.

This collapse in service provision has far-reaching consequences, with delays and denial of access to legal support often resulting in the loss of key rights, immigration status, housing, and education, misclassification of age through unreliable age assessments and can, potentially push children into exploitation, destitution, or deportation.

The lack of legal representation also underscores the urgent need for a statutory Guardianship Service in Wales. Guardians would support unaccompanied children through complex legal processes, and act as consistent advocates helping children to gain access to vital legal advice and representation in an under-resourced system. While the Welsh Government has expressed commitment to exploring this service, action is still pending. To find out more about our calls for a Guardianship Service, please go here.

For a joint briefing from Dr Rhian Croke, Children’s Legal Centre Wales and Isata Kanneh from Bevan Foundation on ‘Barriers to Legal Advice and Representation for Asylum Seeking Children in Wales.’