17 Children in detention: Clegg falls short on promise and other news

Landing in Dover – Office of Children’s Commissioner

Executive summary
0.1 This report follows on from the Children’s Commissioner’s earlier report Landing in Kent.3 It focuses on immigration procedures to which unaccompanied children arriving in Kent are subject between their first encounter with the authorities and the time they are placed in the care of Kent County Council children’s social care services.

0.2 Unaccompanied children are held under detention powers on, and immediately after, their arrival. Government policy is that unaccompanied children should only be detained in the most exceptional circumstances and only while arrangements for their care and safety are made. This policy is in line with the standard set by Article 37(b) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which requires that children should only be detained as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. Read more

Child asylum seekers win compensation for 13-month detention

The Ay family, Kurdish refugees from Turkey, win six-figure payout from the Home Office eight years after childhood ordeal

Four children who were incarcerated in detention centres for 13 months – the longest time children have ever been locked up in the UK – have won a six-figure compensation payout from the Home Office more than eight years after their release. Read more

Official lying in the UK: what child detention reveals about how we are governed

My report sets out government’s persistent undermining of medical evidence that children are harmed by immigration detention. Regarding a case of alleged child sexual abuse, officials also misled ministers about failures in safeguarding at Yarl’s Wood.

If the systematic mendacity recorded here is representative of the way government functions, then our democracy is in serious trouble.

Arising out of an invitation to appear before the House of Lords Communications Committee for their current inquiry into the future of investigative journalism, my report has been submitted in evidence to the committee. Read more

Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency is inviting stakeholders’ views

The Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency  is inviting stakeholders’ views on  development of his inspection plan for 2012-13. 

Views should be sent to: chiefinspectorUKBA@icinspector.gsi.gov.uk  or to the postal address: Attn: Inspection Plan Consultation, Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency, 5^th Floor, Globe House, 89 Eccleston Square, London, SW1V 1PN by30 November 2011.

Still Human Members are encouraged to propose the asylum support system for review, including: Read more

UKBA accused of breaking pledge to end child detention

FOI request by Children’s Society shows 700 children detained at south-east ports in four-month period to August

As many as 2,000 children a year, including many unaccompanied by an adult, could be detained each year at the UK’s borders despite government promises to end child detention.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed that in a four-month period between May and August 2011, almost 700 children were held at the UK’s south-east ports, despite a government pledge in May to end the immigration detention of children. Read more

In Nick Clegg’s fantasy world, child detention in the UK has ended

Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told his fellow Liberal Democrats at the party’s conference in Birmingham to “hold your heads up and look our critics squarely in the eye”.

Among the many things that Liberal Democrats can be proud of when squaring up to their critics,Clegg told delegates, was that child detention has “ended”. Read more

Briefing on Immigration Detention of Children September 2011

Despite having committed to ending the immigration detention of children in May last year, the Government opened a new family detention facility in Crawley, Sussex in September 2011. This centre is described by the Government as ‘Pre-departure Accommodation’. However, the centre is secure and has areas where families and individuals can be held in isolation. Families will be detained there under Immigration Act powers. It will be run as an offshoot of the nearby Tinsley House detention centre and inspected by the Chief Inspector of Prisons. Read more

Man’s inhumanity to man: why and how the UK asylum system must change

Studies over the past ten years consistently demonstrate the callous disregard for human rights and human dignity that accompanies asylum seekers who are being removed from the UK. Medical Justice, Amnesty International and the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture — now called Freedom from Torture— have reported on research that shows brutal physical violence and traumatized and ill-treated children. The UK Border Agency (UKBA), responsible for removals, has from time to time claimed to improve their systems, but the abuses continue, as this month’s reports by HM Inspector of Prisons, Nick Hardwick, confirm. Read more

Clegg and Cameron break their promise to end child detention

END CHILD DETENTION NOW – PRESS RELEASE:  Clegg and Cameron break their promise to end child detention with the opening of a new family detention centre in Sussex.

End Child Detention Now deplores the opening of a new child and family detention facility in Mid Sussex and calls for an urgent parliamentary debate so that Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg can be called to account for breaching his promise to end the detention of children that he made in May of last year. Read more

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