People arriving in Britain on the back of lorries usually conjures up images of adults and families fleeing their native countries, so it will come as a shock to many people to discover that children as young as 10, travelling alone, are also frequent passengers. Reporter Zena hawley looks at why mothers feel forced to take such desperate measures and what happens when they get to Britain.

IMAGINE as a mother seeing your 13-year-old son being groomed as a suicide bomber.

Even worse, it is his father who is fitting him with the explosive belt and telling him that martyrdom awaits.

Mothers across Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran are increasingly helping their sons to flee from certain death to what they hope is a new life in the west.

Their fears are very real, with the number of suicide bombings increasing each year.

In 2008, there were more than 200 suicide bombings in Afghanistan and the vast majority of British and American soldiers killed have lost their lives as a result of these bombings – not in battle.

The success of British troops fighting against the Taliban in conventional warfare has increasingly forced the insurgents into using roadside bombs and mines to kill troops.

Although many of the suicide bombers are thought to come from neighbouring Pakistan, larger numbers of native boys are now being used.

The youngest to date was aged 12. He killed himself and three marines in Helmand province last December.

It is against this background of growing fear that children are secretly put aboard lorries with older men and occasionally families, but rarely do they know anyone they are travelling with.

In other cases, money is openly exchanged in an attempt to gain safe passage.

The journeys are long, difficult and dangerous, with no guarantee of a safe outcome or even the destination.

Many do not set out to specifically come to Britain but find they are rejected by immigration officials in other European countries such as France and Germany.

If they reach the British mainland, there is a good chance that they will either be discovered or disembark around the Channel ports.

Reaching Derbyshire, or anywhere in the East Midlands, is more unusual, although almost 200 have managed it in the past two years.

Seven of them are currently aged under 16 and in foster care in the Derby area. Such youngsters go into care in the places where they left their lorries.

A further 45 unaccompanied young people aged 16 to 18 are also in the city council's care, although not all of them arrived on the back of a lorry.

"These young people are very resourceful," said city council care worker Julie Samuda.

"But the journeys they make and the things they see on their way to a better life leave them very traumatised.

"They are reluctant to talk about what they have seen and gone through.

"But most of them are very intelligent and, once they learn English, they are determined to make a real go of being in Britain."

Miss Samuda said that most of them want to go out to work because they know they can never go home again.

She said: "The boy whose father wanted to turn him into a suicide bomber still doesn't know what happened to his mother because of what she did to help him to escape.

"They have got off lorries in mainland Europe, hoping their journey is at an end, only to find they are being put back on them again to have to travel thousands of miles more until they find a safe haven.

"We also get mothers arriving with children as young as four and five because they are desperate to get them away from the regime in their own country."

An unaccompanied child can apply for asylum in the same way as an adult asylum seeker. They can apply at a port of entry or can lodge their claim, once inside the UK, at one of the asylum screening units at Croydon or Liverpool.

Some local authorities have an arrangement with their local immigration enforcement office that unaccompanied children in their care can lodge their claim at the local enforcement office. The nearest office to Derby is in Birmingham.

If the applicant meets the criteria under the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, he will be granted asylum.

Where the applicant is refused asylum, consideration will be given to human rights issues and there may be an entitlement to humanitarian protection.

An application from an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child that is not considered to fulfil the criteria for either asylum or humanitarian protection qualifies for a period of discretionary leave up to the age of 17 years and five months.

After that, a child is classed as an adult asylum seeker and will have to prove whether they have a right to remain.

Miss Samuda admits that one of the hardest jobs is to identify the ages of those who arrive in Derby.

She said: "It can be a difficult process because there are some young men who pretend to be younger because they want to remain in Britain.

"So they have to be interviewed and examined to work out their correct ages.

"We also need to do this if they are to go to local schools and be in classes appropriate to their age level.

"Without documents, we have to do what we can."

Katie Harris, head of the city council's fostering and adoption service, said it was not always possible to place unaccompanied children in foster homes.

She said: "Increasingly, we try to find families who are willing to take one of these boys.

"But they need help with language and learning a new way of life.

"Sometimes, it is better for them to be placed in a children's home."

Miss Harris said that mothers from other countries were also trying to save their children from cruel fathers.

She said: "We have a boy from Tunisia in our care whose mother put him on a lorry to escape his father, who was beating him terribly.

"The boy is still recovering from the trauma of the journey and his treatment and doesn't know if he will ever see his mother again.

"It will be considered that he has disgraced his father, who has now been reported to the authorities in Tunisia, and he will not be able to return."

Miss Harris said that it is hard to comprehend that such things happen.

She said: "We are dealing with some very damaged children when they arrive here but it is amazing how time spent in a place of safety can help.

"Their mothers would be proud of them."