Child detention, the dilemma
Child detention, the dilemma
Over the years there have been many campaign and pledges which have raised concerns over the detention of children. Although all have shared a similar aim, that is to end the detention of children for immigration purposes, there has been much separation within the NGO's fighting for this aim.
I have been part of the Sanctuary Pledge which was launched in January 2009 after the Independent Asylum Commission recommending an end to child detention in the summer of 2008.
Through the course of the pledge CITIZENS for Sanctuary members have worked hard to secure a commitment to ending child detention on a national level. This included lobbying with prospective parliamentary candidates and involving local Churches and Communities. As a leader for Citizens UK I was committed to this pledge. I have met with Meg Hillier then the Child Detention Minister and fought towards creating a working group in order to reduce the detention of families and ultimately end child detention.
In March 2010 I and some leaders from Citizens UK successfully delivered Easter eggs to Yarl's Wood detention Centre which is an immigration removal centre. The centre originally opened in November 2001. However, half of the building was damaged by fire caused in 2002 and later the undamaged half was re-opened in September 2003. Yarl's Wood is the main family holding removal centre.
Due to all the effort and hard work put in by the public and different communities, Citizens UK leaders were invited to a CITIZENS UK Assembly where Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg and David Cameron also attended. It was at this assembly where our campaign became a reality. Both David Cameron and Nick Clegg committed to ending child detention.
As part of this commitment, a working group has been set up to finding alternatives of detention. To celebrate the success of the Sanctuary Pledge, we held a Garden Party at Westminster Abbey. For this the new Immigration Minster Damian Green was also invited. Mr Green supported the idea of creating working groups in order to end the detention of children. He gave us his own very strong personal commitment to ending the detention of children saying that "This will be a better country when we don't detain children for immigration purposes" he assured us that this will happen in a matter of weeks rather than months.
In order for this commitment to take place, alternatives to detention are needed. As part of finding such alternatives, the working groups, which are a form of a connection line of communication between the UK Border Agency and various NGO's, have been set out to work towards finding alternatives to detaining children. Over the years, numerous evidence has shown us that detention is a traumatic experience for children, thus we have been looking at other ways of removing failed asylum seekers where children are involved. The working group have triggered many topics for discussion; UK BA has set out some ideas of what it believes to be an alternative; however examples include 72 hours detention and same day removals. This is clearly unacceptable and defeats the aim of our campaign. However the dilemma remains, in a scenario where a family refuses to comply and return voluntarily, what does UK BA do and how do they work around this without detaining. Suggestions have included creating a fair and just system which deals with families appropriately from the start of the asylum. There has been a shared principle between UK BA and the NGO's which were laid out in the terms of reference for the working group and were agreed by UK BA. These principles included the main issue which is that "Children and their families should not be detained for immigration purposes and the health, welfare and best interests of children must be primary."
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