China News Service, April 7 (Xinhua) According to the "Huawen School", the WeChat public account of China News Weekly, after the outbreak of the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic in the UK, the status of Chinese students studying in the UK has affected many people's hearts. According to data from the Chinese Embassy in the UK, there are about 220,000 Chinese students studying in the UK, including about 15,000 underage students.
What is the current situation of the small students who are staying in the UK? What should parents pay attention to when looking for host families and guardians for their children in the UK?
Some small international students have been placed properly
A few days ago, the Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom Liu Xiaoming said that the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom has found three institutions to accommodate these small students.
Ying Yi, the executive director of Yingcui International Education Group, said that there are mainly two situations for these stranded small international students. Some small international students are boarding in boarding schools, but because the boarding schools are closed during the epidemic or Easter period, they cannot provide accommodation; In part, it is because the guardians of some small international students who live in the guardian ’s family are older and cannot continue to take care of these small international students.
"According to the British government regulations, elderly people over 70 years of age must be separated at home for 12 weeks, which makes it more difficult for these families to continue to take care of these small international students. Coupled with the reduction of Sino-British flights affected by the epidemic, some originally planned for Easter The small international students who returned to China on holidays could not return to China as scheduled, resulting in the detention of a small number of Chinese international students in the UK. "Chen Yi said," The parents of these students also hope to be able to pick up their children to return home. These parents are worried that their children are not yet adults. A person who is far away from home and is alone overseas is under great pressure both physically and mentally. If the child returns to China, they are willing to accept the child's isolation in the country. "
Chen Yi also said that they successively received dozens of small international students from the embassy, and they are also actively arranging the accommodation of these small international students. "At present, the arrangements have been basically completed, and some small international students will also take flights back to China in the near future. . "
Lawyer reminds: Chinese parents have hidden dangers when choosing temporary host families and guardians
Some of these students who are staying in the UK will return to China one after another, and some parents of the students who are studying abroad will hope that their children will stay in the UK for reasons of road risk, economic affordability, and do not want to interrupt their child's learning progress.
However, due to various reasons such as the original host family or school of the child, the child can no longer be accepted. Parents can only entrust the Chinese or the British to implement the child's boarding and guardianship issues in various ways. So, what should parents pay attention to when looking for suitable host families and guardians for their children?
Luna, a Chinese lawyer with 30 years of experience, said that the fact that these small students stayed in the UK also exposed some loopholes in the long-term supervision of small students.
Luna further analyzes that some small students are staying in the UK, except for some of them who have practical difficulties. For example, the guardians are older and they ca n’t take care of these small students. Some of them may also live in short-term homestay families. The members of these host families are not guardians of the children, but British law does not allow the separation of host families and guardians.
She learned that many Chinese parents have entrusted British guardianship companies to take care of their children, and regular guardianship companies have arranged for their children to stay and stay early in the outbreak. She said: "Some companies do not provide accommodation, and a lot of guardians or host families are attached to them. The guardianship company also has a strict review of the qualifications of guardians or host families, so some homestay members are also guardians, and some The separation of the host family member and guardian. "
"According to British law, minors under the age of 18 need guardianship (some high schools also require guardians for international students who have reached the age of 18). However, Chinese parents often have the qualifications and legal requirements for legal guardians. Responsibility for these issues is not well understood. Some parents think that one person can take care of their children abroad. This is actually a misunderstanding. "Luna said.
Luna said that guardians need to meet at least these basic conditions:
1. The guardian must be over 25 years old;
2. The guardian must be at least permanently resident in the UK or a British citizen;
3. The guardian does not take guardianship as the main occupation but only works part-time;
4. Guardians and family members over the age of 18 living together must have a criminal proof (Disclosure and Barring Service, DBS);
5. The guardian's living environment must meet the legal requirements and must be able to accept short-term accommodation.
However, according to Luna, some Chinese parents are looking for a guardian for their children or entrusting their children to a guardianship company. When looking for a guardian through the guardianship company, the guardian they have found does not fully meet these five basic conditions. In this way, there is a loophole in the child's guardianship rights.
Luna also said that at present, some small international students are facing an emergency situation where they have nowhere to go and urgently need to find short-term homestay families and guardians. She also reminded Chinese parents again: "Be sure to pay attention to the background of the homestay family and family members and their occupations."
According to Luna, in the UK, there are differences in the supervision of minors under 16 and 16-18. The guardianship of minors under 16 years of age should be full guardianship, including life, education and law. Minors aged 16-18 have already possessed certain civil capacity, and can only require educational guardianship without full guardianship. In other words, the child can stay away from the guardian's home (it can live in a safe host family, but it is not allowed to stay alone outside).
However, Luna still advises parents that even if the children are 16-18 years old, they should try to choose a guardian who can provide some basic life assistance. "For example, some students are terrified by the lawyer ’s letter issued by the bank, but in fact the bank is only based on The visa is about to expire, and a system letter was sent; for example, if the child goes to the doctor, he needs to be accompanied and signed by the guardian, etc. Some guardianship companies have a single service item, only educational guardianship, but they do not cover the difficulties encountered in life, these problems It ’s worth paying attention to. ”
In addition, she also reminded parents looking for a guardian family afterwards that if the guardianship fee provided by the guardianship company is very low, then it also needs to be vigilant if such guardian can provide corresponding guardianship. "If it is a minor under 16 years of age, under normal circumstances, the cost of one year ’s full guardianship should be between 5,000 pounds and 10,000 pounds; The fee of a regular guardianship company is at least 3800 pounds. "