MiCLU’s Justice First fellow Esme Madill shines a light on the failings of the Home Office toward Albanian child asylum-seekers in a new Open Democracy article where she describes her experiences working with vulnerable young people.

Esme says the system isn’t working for Albanian children: even among professionals whose job it is to protect vulnerable children, there’s a common assumption that Albania is a safe country and that these children are economic migrants.

“But this does not match the facts,” according to Esme. “Of the 3,805 potential victims of trafficking referrals to the National Referral Mechanism in 2016, 699, the largest number, came from Albania.”

To highlight the massive failure in protection for these children and explore ways to ensure they are protected against the risks of return to abuse in their country of origin as well as further exploitation in the UK, MiCLU are holding in conjunction with Shpresa Programmefree event on Friday, 1 June 2018 in the Houses of Parliament.

Breaking the Chains aims to bring together specialist barristers and solicitors to explore topics such as blood feud cases, challenging the country guidance, representing trafficking victims, and child-centred casework and how to work with young people.

Young people will also be present to speak about their experiences and answer questions. We hope to see you there!