UK-run detention centers in France held 284 unaccompanied minors in 2025

UK-run short-term detention facilities near Calais and Dunkirk held 284 unaccompanied minors in 2025, a 10% rise from 258 in 2024, according to documents obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act. The 2024 figure itself represented a 197% increase from 87 in 2023. In 2022, 253 children were recorded as being held at the sites.

The four facilities — Coquelles freight, Coquelles tourist, Calais tourist and Dunkirk — are designed to hold clandestine travellers and those suspected of having incorrect paperwork for no longer than 24 hours. Despite being run by the UK government, data on who is held by the UK in France is not published as part of official immigration statistics.

Overall detentions of adults and children at the sites fell to 7,454 in 2025, down from 9,736 in 2024 and 8,302 in 2023.

Inspectors raised safeguarding issues last year after authorities failed to locate referrals for two vulnerable child detainees who were subsequently re-trafficked. In one instance, a 14-year-old girl who had been found zipped in a holdall in a car, and a 16-year-old boy with a history of being trafficked and abused, were detained and then handed over to French border police. About a month later, the girl was taken clandestinely to the UK and held in a warehouse with five other women before she managed to escape, fearing she would be forced into prostitution. The 16-year-old boy was also later found in the UK.

Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said at the time: “It was particularly worrying that Border Force could not locate safeguarding referrals of vulnerable detainees, including two children who were subsequently re-trafficked.”

Refugee charities called the figures “shocking” and raised concerns about secrecy and safeguarding. Kama Petruczenko, senior policy analyst at the Refugee Council, said: “These facilities are UK-run and form part of the UK’s border operations so we should be worried that so many children continue to be detained. Refugee children are children first and foremost. They should not be held in unsuitable detention settings or exposed to processes that risk their welfare. The government needs to explain how so many unaccompanied children came to be detained in these facilities and act to fulfil its duty to protect them.”

Jonathan Ellis, project director of the Detention Forum, a network of more than 50 UK NGOs, said: “With the government planning to develop their detention estate in France, this lack of accountability and use of established procedures must be addressed urgently.”

Maddie Harris, founder and director of the Humans for Rights Network, said: “After months if not years of traumatic and violent journeys, it is shocking that hundreds of unaccompanied children have been detained in British-run detention facilities, exposed to further harm. Unaccompanied children should never be detained, raising significant questions about how these children came to be in these facilities, and what steps the UK is taking to protect them.”

The figures have emerged as a new French detention centre being paid for by the UK faces a legal challenge from environmental group Adelfa (Flemish-Artois Coastal Environmental Defence Assembly), which argues the permit for the half-built centre in Dunkirk should be withdrawn because it violates local planning rules. The new facility is part of a £660m deal signed last month and was due to open by autumn.