500 children face forcible repatriation

The Home Office is drawing up plans to forcibly repatriate up to 500 children to Vietnam as part of a programme that could see thousands of minors sent back to an uncertain future in the countries where they were born.

The Immigration and Nationality Directorate is planning to remove failed asylum seeking children who have no family in Britain, beginning with a trial run of Vietnamese children.

Under the plans, which would be a reversal of policies in place since the late 1990s, there will be occasions when children are removed for the purposes of "immigration control", even if returning them to their country of origin is against their best interests. Many of the Vietnamese children to be considered for forced removal are believed to be girls in their early teens smuggled into this country by human traffickers to work in nail parlours, brothels and cannabis factories.

Immigration officials are thought to have visited Vietnam at least twice in preparation for the "unaccompanied asylum seeking children returns programme". They are understood to have visited several potential reception centres including a state-run orphanage, which was deemed unsuitable. Officials are now assessing the possibility of directly funding care organisations in host countries.