A significant number of unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) have arrived in France in recent years, including many who have travelled from and through the Middle East. , a French asylum association, reports having supported 1,887 UASC between January and 15 October 2017, up from 1,422 in the whole of 2016.1 Along with other refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants, many UASC have found their way to northwest France in the hope of moving onward to the United Kingdom (UK). As of March 2016, an estimated 500 UASC were living in seven different sites in northwest France, according to a UNICEF report.
A constant feature of the journeys of children moving along the eastern Mediterranean route has been a lack of specific protection support. As this paper argues, such protection concerns do not end on arrival in France, where recent policy shifts are increasingly prioritising immigration imperatives at the expense of children s best interests.
