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IRIN Web Special on Separated Somali Children
Chapter 3: Looking after separated children
Living on the edge
Some unaccompanied children suffer more than others. Most at risk are those who have been abused or used for exploitative purposes, ranging from benefit fraud, domestic labour and prostitution.
An unknown number of these children are exploited by using them to manipulate the welfare state. In Britain, this is a category of at-risk children who are of particular concern to Somali voluntary welfare organizations. "Often the family wants social service benefits, but does not give the child any affection or proper attention…The children know they don't have an equal life, an equal share, with the other children in the family, and that leads to misery and problems," said Dahabo Isa, a community organiser in London.
Benefit fraud
Where a state welfare system gives priority to women with children, a child may be used to secure accommodation, or to get welfare payments that are used by the rest of the family. Concerned members of the diaspora say the Somali community abroad turns a blind eye to this practice, either because it is useful for claiming benefits or out of shame that it is being done - or through fear that exposing it might threaten legitimate benefits. One Somali teacher in London said children exploited for benefit were a visible "underclass" in the community. In one of the schools she taught in, the teacher said she became concerned for one eight-year-old Somali boy who appeared unnaturally thin and disheveled. "He used to come to school having not eaten and it was obvious he had no care at home…he said he was living with relatives whose children hated him, and he had to look after himself." The boy was left to get his own breakfast and find his way to school. He was poorly dressed despite the cold, and frequently ill. According to the teacher, he described himself as "alone in the family".
Dealing with the paperwork - Deqa, in London, struggles to understand an eviction order.
Photo: IRIN/Jenny Matthews-Network
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Through her work in the Somali Development Organisation, Dahabo Isa seeks out separated children in the community to try and give them advice and support. It is only recently, she says, that diaspora organizations have realized the scale of the problem of unaccompanied children. She describes most of the separated children as "hidden", as they stay with clan members or a distant relative - "We try to do what we can, and find them through word of mouth, through relatives…Sometimes they come to our attention because they have been used to claim benefits and then the family doesn't want them any more." The Somali community has resisted attempts to collate lists of unaccompanied children and highlight their plight. Dahabo blames this on a particular section of the community. "Our people refuse, they don't want it known that there are unaccompanied children, because they want to keep on getting the benefits", she told IRIN. She said her organization has had little success when trying to petition social services about the plight of the unaccompanied, because social workers believe it is sufficient that the child is staying with relatives. "We try to help these children, meet with the duty worker, go to the asylum section for unaccompanied children, but too often they say the child should stay with relatives and friends. 'This case is not a priority', they say."
In its study on unaccompanied children in England, Save the Children underlined this concern when it observed the lack of interest on the part of social workers in the families which took in unaccompanied children. "We did not identify a single case where an adult carer accompanying a separated child had been assessed for their suitability to take responsibility for the child."13
According to Marie Hessle, research carried out in Sweden showed that of a group of 100 separated children of different nationalities, 58 percent had such severe problems that they needed special help. Hessle said that during the autumn of 2001, 12 unaccompanied children of different nationalities under the care of the state had attempted suicide. She said it related to the trauma in their home countries, as well as the situation in the host country. "Some have witnessed awful things, and some have been abused; some have come from violent families." She added that some of the girls were raped and abused by smugglers or lured into prostitution; some discovered they were HIV-positive.
13 See Cold Comfort: Young separated refugees in England, (Save the Children, 2001)
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