ABSTRACT
Children's suspicion of authority, their particular sociocultural characteristics and their asylum-seeking situation are all likely to play a part in their state of mental health. Although not automatic for contacts with asylum-seeking and refugee children, it is likely that a substantial proportion will require interpreting input at some point, particularly at the early stages of moving to their host country. Approximately 51.2 million individuals fall into this broad group, largely consisting of 33 million internally displaced people, 17 million refugees and 1.2 million asylum-seekers. Bear in mind that children may require time to settle into their new life, albeit remaining in limbo about their status and they may thus require more than one attempt before they feel sufficiently safe to engage in trauma-focused psychological work. Children under 18 years constitute about 50 per cent of the refugee population, with a total of approximately 25,000 unaccompanied minors applying for asylum annually across 80 countries.
