Last week Dr. Zoe Given-Wilson presented her chapter in the second multidisciplinary training manual of the Credo project, at
the joint launch at No. 5 Chambers with Asylum Aid and UNHCR London. Thanks to
the Credo project Zoe has been able to complete a thorough review of the
psychology literature on issues facing young people seeking asylum, including
the development of autobiographical memory (some aspects don’t develop until as
late as our 20s!), the effects of trauma on children, and how depression and
anxiety can affect how they present in the asylum procedure. This work underpinned her contributions to
UNHCR’s final report of the project and her chapter in the training manual.
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| Pink Sherbert, Creative Commons |
CSEL’s research initially focused only on adults seeking
asylum, but over the years we often had requests for equally sound research
about children. Thanks to the Credo project we were able to engage Zoe, a
specialist in children and young people, to allow us to cover this less well
understood group.
Zoe’s re-appearance from her maternity leave last week also
marked our successful bid for funding for Zoe to write up and submit her work for
peer-review and publication in the scientific literature. Once her two papers have been published in
high-impact scientific journals they will be available for citing and using in
decision-making, case-work, training, and support work for young people in need
of protection from persecution.
As with our adult research, through the Evidence into
Practice training workshops and other presentations and ad hoc training, it
will be crucial for us to be able to disseminate this work on unaccompanied
children seeking asylum as widely as possible - to ensure that decision making
for them is also based on the best quality evidence available. We will need to
secure support to maintain our capacity to do this. If you can help us
undertake and maintain this work, please get in touch.
