Police taking photos and fingerprints of lone children arriving in UK

FoI data reveals thousands of children including two-year-old targeted by immigration enforcement operation

Thousands of unaccompanied children, including one aged two years old, have been subjected to police fingerprinting and photographing soon after arriving in the UK as part of a little-known immigration enforcement operation.

Operation Innerste is a multi-agency initiative that was rolled out in 2018 and is designed to protect children newly arrived in the UK from falling into the hands of traffickers.