MiCLU was established in 2012 by Baljeet Sandhu based on her experiences as a youth worker and a legal aid lawyer representing migrant and refugee children within UK immigration and care systems. Baljeet formerly worked at Refugee and Migrant Justice to build a targeted children’s rights programme to improve the legal representation of children and develop innovative strategic legal and associated policy work to further refugee children’s rights more widely.
To ensure the continuation of this work after Refugee and Migrant Justice closed down, the Refugee Children’s Rights Project (RCRP) was created, hosted by Islington Law Centre and Coram Children’s Legal Centre. Building on the work of RMJ, the RCRP combined strategic litigation with rights-based policy advocacy to promote and advocate for children’s rights within UK immigration and care systems. The project was involved in a number of ground-breaking cases on children’s rights and played a key policy and influencing role in the work of the Refugee & Migrant Children’s Consortium and other legal and policy networks.
MiCLU was formally established in 2012 with legacy funding awarded by the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund (DPWMF) to take forward this work. MiCLU has since been growing from strength to strength, forging new and exciting partnerships with law centres, lawyers, children’s charities, statutory agencies, academics and universities nationally.