CHILD refugees are being left stranded without support at Britain’s main point of entry as the situation reaches “breaking point,” officials revealed yesterday.

The number of unaccompanied children requesting asylum grew by more than half in the last five months, from 630 in August to 980 this week, said Kent County Council.

Nearly 200 of the mostly 16 and 17-year-old boys in the care of the council are currently without a social worker and awaiting a full assessment.

According to a council report, the influx is “unprecedented” and “services are at breaking point and the current position is not sustainable.”

Refugee Council children’s services expert Helen Johnson said: “Unaccompanied children in Britain have often fled unimaginable horrors overseas and have endured frightening and dangerous journeys.

“It is essential that their needs come first and that they are able to access the specialist care and support they are entitled to and so desperately need.

“Clearly, Kent County Council is struggling to provide that care single-handedly, so it’s vital that other local authorities step forward to help share responsibility for protecting these vulnerable young people.”

Council documents also show that staff are increasingly struggling to fulfil basic requirements, such as carrying out visits, health assessments and reviews of the children’s cases.

Many of the boys in council care in Kent are believed to have been smuggled into Britain across the English Channel, some having stayed in the refugee camp outside the French port of Calais.

Aid volunteers in Calais said the number of children in the camp, known as the Jungle, had grown and many were living in appalling conditions.

A spokesman for aid group London 2 Calais told the Star: “In Calais we’ve met children from Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, countries the British government is willing to spend millions on bombing, yet we are told there are no resources to settle them in the UK.”

He added that, despite the shocking revelations by Kent County Council, the situation could in fact be worse, as many of those reaching Britain have been processed as over-18s and placed in detention.