A meeting with Baroness Lister

Baroness Ruth Lister of Butterset came to Baobab today to visit our Centre and meet with a few young people. It was great to feel her attention and support for their difficulties navigating the complexities of the asylum and care systems.

The Baroness heard about young people worried that they cannot help family members out of danger as family reunification is complex and lengthy. She heard the harrowing story of a teenager who does not know how to swim who crossed the Channel on a small boat, arrived late in the evening wet and hungry, was waken up at 1 in the morning for his initial asylum interview — and then faced an incomprehensible journey into care, with weeks on £20 a week and no explanation about where he was taken in accommodation or care.

We discussed legislative options to make “time to recovery” compulsory — a period where young people should be welcome with proper, warm care so they can start to recover from their journeys and be explained the system they will be facing. The Baroness supports a Guardianship idea, similar to what is in place in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and we will be looking forward to work with her on extending the scheme to England and Wales.

Both ideas, “time to get our feet under us again” and a “mentor-advocate” to help young people understand how to integrate faster, were two of the important ideas that the young people of our community indicated were needed to improve the current UK asylum system and are now a key part of our advocacy agenda for 2025.