The Asylum Process and Psychological needs of Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children

Desmond Delaney

Issue 377, Vol.95, Spring 2006

The social-work team for separated children seeking asylum are notified of a child’s arrival by the civil authorities. A social worker carries out an assessment, and must make a decision whether to forward the child into the asylum process (in which case he or she accompanies the child to the long series of meetings with the Refugee Legal Services and the Department Of Justice). All this involves giving a policing role to social workers – whose code of ethics binds them to a non-judgmental and advocacy role.

Sometimes it is only when basic welfare needs are being met, that trauma re-surfaces for the child – who will often have experienced, e.g., the violent loss of loved ones. The long-drawn-out asylum process – and a policing-function possibly projected onto the figure of the social worker – do not make for a secure sense of the self. Some children may have to be referred to the specialist HSE psychological service for separated children. Traumatised children are vulnerable to: any perceived threat of further loss; anxiety-reaction; mood swings; depression; aggressiveness; psychosomatic symptoms. But it is highly advisable to ascribe all this to a grieving process (cultural bereavement) than to label it as a psychiatric condition.

The social worker must be prepared for a long wait in some cases before a child is ready to “open up” about life-story and experiences. And a person dealing with young people from another culture needs to be aware that the primary carers are not always the two-parent family; also, that individual talk-therapy may be perceived as alien.

But with any psychological difficulty, whatever the precipitant or severity, a powerful healing-agent for the child will be: psycho-social supports. From the outset, the effort is crucial to find peers for the young person – through approved befriending families, through church groups, etc. Shared recreational activities (such as sport) – and a suitable school environment – also empower children to find their feet in a new society.

Desmond Delaney is a Community Care social worker and has previously worked with asylum seeking children in Ireland.