Refugee Council has expressed concern at continued detention of children for immigration purposed. Latest figures from the Home Office show that showed 17 children were held in detention in December 2011, and ten of those were held in the new family detention unit at Cedars.
Donna Covey, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council said they were concerned to hear that ten children were held in the family detention unit at Cedars in December. “Although the numbers of children detained have dropped since the new family returns process was introduced last year, this is ten children too many.”
Ms. Covey said they have consistently asked the government to keep their promise of ending child detention. “Despite UKBA’s efforts to improve conditions, we are extremely disappointed that children are still being held,” Ms. Covey said. “A huge body of evidence shows this is harmful for the welfare of children, and there is no practical reason for children to be detained as part of the asylum process.
“It will be two years in May since the government pledged to stop detaining children, but when will they actually fulfil this once and for all?”
On 16th December 2010, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced the end of child detention for immigration purposes.
He said the practice will end completely by May 2011, and confirmed that the family wing of Yarl’s Wood immigration centre in Bedfordshire was to close immediately.
“Today the Coalition Government is making an important announcement. We are setting out, for the first time, how we are ending the detention of children for immigration purposes in the UK,” Mr. Clegg said.
He said they were ending what he described as “the shameful practice” that in the previous year alone, “saw over 1,000 children – 1,000 innocent children – imprisoned.”
Mr. Clegg criticized the Labour Government for having detained 7,000 children in a period of five years. “Children literally taken from their homes, without warning, and placed behind bars. Locked up, sometimes for weeks, sometimes for months, in one case for 190 days; something no innocent child should ever have to endure,” Mr. Clegg said. “That practice, the practice we inherited, ends here.”
That was on 16th December 2010, but the practice has not ended.
