THURROCK Council is set to hand over child refugees to another council after reaching the maximum number the borough can take.

Thurrock Council is in discussions about moving some of the refugee children in its care to Southend.

A spokesman for Thurrock Council said: “Thurrock Council is working in partnership with the Home Office and other local authorities across the Eastern Region as part of a national unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) transfer scheme.

“The purpose of the scheme is to ensure fair and equitable distribution of UASC across the region and nationally.

“Thurrock has been identified as a local authority with a high number of UASC – we currently have three times more than our quota set by the Home Office - and the council is working with other authorities to bring this number down.”

James Courtenay, Southend councillor responsible for children and learning, said: “The Government published the protocol this summer, which allows for the safe transfer of unaccompanied children from one authority to another.

“All local councils are expected to take responsibility for young people under the scheme until they reach a ceiling, in our case this is 27 young people.”

Mr Courtenay said under a regional agreement, which had seen councils in the East of England share burden of taking in refugees, Thurrock had reached capacity.

He added: “Thurrock is over its ceiling number, so as part of the regional work we will be taking on responsibility for five young people from Thurrock that are already placed in Southend.”

Mr Courtenay said the children were already settled in the community and would not impact on foster care in the borough.