During the summer of 2023 Francesca Panico joined RYS’s No Children in Hotels Project to undertake a two-month internship. The internship took place as part of the fieldwork requirement for a Masters Degree program, which also required the production of an academic paper concerning the issue addressed by the internship. The paper therefore aims to examine the multifaceted challenges faced by age-disputed UASCs in the UK, shedding light on the urgent need for a ‘human right-based’ approach that safeguards their rights and minimises the risk of retraumatisation.

For this purpose, the following research question is addressed in the study: How do age assessment procedures in the UK affect the children’s rights of unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors in the country? This is supported by the following sub-questions: 1. How does the experience of being age-disputed and accommodated in adult accommodations impact unaccompanied children in the UK? 2. Why is a ‘human right-based’ approach needed within the age assessment process? 3. What are the best practices for minimising the risk of re-traumatisation for UASCs?

The paper can be found here.