Asylum hope children travel alone

The youngest child found abandond was just three years old

Children as young as three have been found abandoned at ports and airports in Hampshire, the Home Office has said.

Its figures show 3,525 unaccompanied children under 18 applied for asylum in the UK in 2007, a 2% increase on 2006.

Many of the children were from war-torn or very poor countries. A third arrived from Afghanistan, 10% from Iran and 9% from Iraq.

During 2007, 68 children were found abandoned at Southampton docks, airport and at service stations in the county.

Hampshire County Council said it had placed 43, while Southampton City Council took in 19 and a further six were looked after by Portsmouth City Council.

The youngest child found by the county council was just three years old.

Parents killed

Christine Knight, from the Southampton and Winchester Visitors' Group, which works with asylum seekers, said children were often sent by friends or family members as the "best of several terrible options".

"We do see people who came to this country as unaccompanied asylum seeker children," she said.

"Usually their parents have been killed and distant relatives or friends put them on a plane here because it is better than staying in Iraq, for example.

"It usually means they have been orphaned, there is no-one to look after them and it is very unsafe in their home country."

A spokesman for Southampton City Council said the children went into the fostering service, and every care was taken not to spilt up siblings.

Under plans announced in February by the Home Office, children could be sent back to their country of origin.

But a Border Agency spokesperson said it would never deport a child unless the family had been contacted, or other care had been arranged.