Rights at Border Control for unaccompanied minor with special needs

[LondonMummer]

My son has ADHD. He is 15. His dad is Dutch and we travel regularly between Amsterdam and London.

He flew this weekend as an unaccompanied minor for the first time (something he's wanted to do for ages and is registered as special assistance on the booking) and perhaps unsurprisingly due to his age and point of embarkation he was asked a lot of questions at UK border control. Thankfully he seems to have managed ok but thinking ahead I'm worried if they took him into a room to question him or worse still search him he might freak out.

If that happened and I was collecting him at the airport could he ask for me to be in the room. Or could he ask for a chaperone. I've heard terrible stories about people with special needs having meltdowns and being manhandled in similar situations and I want to fully prepare my son as best I can.

Honestly, if you’re so worried that he may have a meltdown then I think he’s not ready to travel unaccompanied.

I agree. It isn't worth the risk.

On the UK side I would have thought the “appropriate adult” normal police rules would apply but not 100% sure on that.

Sorry but that's not right. If I didn't think he was ready I would let him fly alone but this could still be the case when he's 18 or 21 and is true of most people with special needs. It would be discriminatory to suggest they shouldn't be able to fly in case they have a meltdown.

As it happens he's hugely capable but a search would be a very high stress situation for anyone.

I'm not sure how things work on the Dutch side, but would advise using sunflower lanyards in UK airports. My son has one and staff are trained to look out for them. We've been whisked through fast lanes etc or passed to specially trained assistance staff for things like passport control, security scans etc. Has made life much easier. Often you don't even have to ask - as soon as staff see the lanyard, they act.

Agree completely. Autistic adults could have a meltdown, are we not allowed to fly?!

Thanks so much. We have done this for years and as you say it's a complete game changer.

I don’t know the answer to your question but I think it’s better that he starts doing this trip alone when officially a “minor” as there are likely to be safeguards that won’t exist once he’s 18. Does he hold an eu passport? Make sure you and he know all the immigration and customs rules inside out so no danger of inadvertently doing something wrong.

I'm not sure of his legal rights but could you get him a little card to keep with his travel documents in English and Dutch that explains 'i have special needs, please contact xxx in an emergency or if I need extra assistance' ?

We recently went to Amsterdam as a family and we got lots of questions at border control, where are you staying? For how long? What are you going to do there? What else are you going to visit? Have you been before? And so on...lots were aimed at the children who had no club how to answer.
We're a very typical family of 4, staying in Amsterdam for one week, so maybe they're doing more thorough checks now. It threw us a bit and we're NT adults.

Thank you. Yes he has both UK and Dutch passports and uses the Dutch one to enter and leave The Netherlands and the UK one to leave and enter the UK.

He is your typical neurodiverse rule abider with a very strong sense of justice. He's also a know it all teenager 😊

Yes I like your idea of a card. When he travels with one adult I used to have to provide a parental consent form and it would maybe be useful still to provide this with a photo of me and my passport.

We travel back and forth frequently as a family but I'm worried frequent solo trips to Amsterdam may flag him on the system.

Hopefully when he explained that his grandma had taken him to the airport and I was waiting to meet him at Heathrow they were a little reassured that he didn't fit the profile of a county lines mule.

I do think it's good they check both from a people trafficking and drugs point of view but obviously concerned if he were to get pulled aside and worse still searched.

The Border Force has a statutory responsibility to safeguard children. Most of the guidance on this relating to unaccompanied children is aimed, as you might expect, at dealing with refugee arrivals or foreign nationals, so not particularly relevant to your child, but rest assured that should any sort of intervention be required on landing they will be very careful to do everything necessary to support him. It’s something there should be a lot of attention on. Obviously if he is also wearing a lanyard it will be helpful, so they are aware of any additional vulnerability.

I have a 15yo AuDHD child too who is similarly keen to start doing some of our regular trips solo - fortunately ours don't involve international borders.

I have goven mine a sunflower landyard with a small plastic pouch on it into which I have put a 1-page statement of needs - when we went on holiday I created a bilingual version. That includes something along the lines of that (name) will be fully capable of managing their journey solo if everything goes smoothly, but that in the event of any disruption, emergency, diversion or security incident they may need additional support and those in authority need to know they are vulnerable and in need of extra help. DC is instructed to show this document to someone official if things get complicated.

if you create something like this, include all contact details for an appropriate adult at each end of the journey. For the specific scenario you are worried about you could include a statement that in the event of any circumstances where the child needs to be interviewed, they must have a chaperone or advicate present to support them, who is not part of the same organisation as those wanting to question him.

We’re talking about a ND child here, whose needs are such that he may not be able to cope in stressful situations. Therefore he’s not yet ‘hugely capable’ and may need an additional adult with him when he travels. I didn’t suggest he ‘shouldn’t be able to fly’, I suggested he’s not yet ready to fly unaccompanied. Many 15 year olds aren’t ready to fly solo, regardless of any SEN they may have. Blimey, many adults won’t fly solo!

Does he have a letter of consent signed by both parents (with their contact details) setting out the details of the trip you’re consenting to and where he was staying etc? If not then this might help.

Thank you

This is brilliant advice. Thank you

When I used to travel as a minor the escort who collected us from the aeroplane would stay with us until we were collected from the airport, so surely they would be with him when he passed the border etc to be there when he is answering any questions?

We’re talking about a ND child here, whose needs are such that he may not be able to cope in stressful situations. Therefore he’s not yet ‘hugely capable’ and may need an additional adult with him when he travels

When does that end though? I’m NT with several decades of life experience, decades of flying experience pre-Covid, and after some horror flights and airport experiences I can honestly say I had moments on the knife edge of losing my shit.

I would think those poor women who had the horrendous experience of intimate exams after being hauled off their flight in Doha may likely have lost their shit being unable to cope in such a stressful situation. Does not blame them one bit.

Not sure about the not believing able to fly unless you can guarantee you can cope in stressful situations piece.

No I'm afraid not. At 15 there is no escort. Some airlines won't take minors but with others whist they are told they can ask for assistance no one accompanies them. For younger children travelling alone you can pay for an escorted service but this is optional at my son's age and is definitely not something he'd want.

This 100%

Write a letter for the airline and BC to read. I will be doing this soon as one of my DC is meeting a friend in NYC soon and is 17yo. Put your details in the letter in case they need to contact you.

This is what we are doing for DC 17.

I'm an autistic adult.
Different countries have different levels of understand. When I melted down in Dubai, I kept showing them my autism card, and they would read it and then bark Yes, but why are you crying?!
Birmingham was the best.

Yes, my autistic child (lanyard wearing) was treated pretty unhelpfully at a German airport recently. They did backtrack when she started to meltdown at security (I was with her throughout, she wasn’t alone) but it was very different to the UK airport treatment.