UK detained 1,300 child migrants

Children are being held at centres intended for adults

More than 1,300 children were held at UK immigration removal centres during a 15-month period, the government says.

The figures were revealed in a letter from Immigration Minister Phil Woolas to Pete Wishart MP, the Scottish National Party home affairs spokesman.

The letter also revealed that 889 children from 488 families had been detained for more than 28 days between April 2004 and September 2009.

Mr Wishart said detaining children in adult centres was "simply wrong".

The letter also said the figures were not subject to the "detailed checks" that usually apply to official statistics, and added that individual children may have been counted more than once, as they could have been transferred from one centre to another.

According to the government's figures:

• There were 884 children held at Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire between July 2008 and July 2009
• Tinsley House, near Gatwick Airport, held 328 children between 1 September 2008 and 31 August 2009
• One hundred and three children were held at the Dungavel centre in South Lanarkshire between October 2008 and 18 September 2009.

Mr Wishart said: "Whatever the position of the parents, children should not be detained behind barbed wire.

Children's welfare is not well served by the UK's actions and regardless of their parents immigration status children should not have to pay this price Pete Wishart, SNP MP

"That 103 children have been held in Scotland, where the Scottish government is firmly against child detention, is deeply disturbing. It's time for the UK government to end this practice.

"These figures show nearly 200 children a year are being held for more than four weeks.

"Regardless of what provision is made for children in these centres, that they are being held behind bars is unacceptable.

"I will be pursuing this issue with the UK government. Children's welfare is not well served by the UK's actions and regardless of their parents' immigration status children should not have to pay this price."

'Duty of care'

He accused the government of "detaining the equivalent of a high school every year across the UK".

Mr Wishart also claimed it was the first time statistics on the number of children held in such centres had been released.

Mr Woolas said in his letter that "the welfare of children is an issue which I take very seriously".

He added: "The UK Border Agency is introducing the duty of care to children through the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill.

"In addition a programme to improve statistics on people held in detention is under way. This will result in more statistics published, subject to data quality, in 2009. The programme of work will give a particular focus to detained children."

Labour made mistakes over immigration, Alan Johnson admits

Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, admitted today that the Labour Government has made mistakes over immigration policy in his first speech on the issue.

 

Published: 12:55PM GMT 02 Nov 2009

Alan Johnson: Distancing himself from his predecessors, he said ministers had ignored for 'far too long' problems in the immigration system Photo: REUTERS

Mr Johnson said that some parts of Britain were "disproportionately" affected by immigration, with an influx of new arrivals putting a "strain" on jobs and services.

Setting out four key principles for debate, including that all immigrants should learn English, he also accepted that his party had been "maladroit" in its handling of the issue.

Distancing himself from his predecessors, he said ministers had ignored for "far too long" problems in the immigration system that led to huge backlogs of asylum seekers and foreign national prisoners.

He told an audience at the Royal Society for the Arts in central London: "Whilst I accept that governments of both persuasions, including this one, have been maladroit in their handling of this issue, I do believe that the UK is now far more successful at tackling migration than most of its European and north American neighbours.

He added: "The legacy problems with unreturned foreign national prisoners and asylum seekers may have accumulated under previous administrations, but they continued to be ignored for far too long on our watch."

Mr Johnson outlined four principles in the debate on immigration which he said should be accepted by everyone.

• That there was "no sensible argument" for immigration to cease altogether;

• Some communities more affected by immigration than others had "legitimate concerns about the strain that the growth in the local population has placed on jobs and services";

• Other countries are affected by the problems caused by immigration;

• People who come to live here should learn the language, obey the laws and pay tax.

Answering questions after his speech, Mr Johnson appeared to distance himself from attempts to introduce detention for terror suspects for up to 90 days.

In the aftermath of the 7/7 attacks in 2005, the Government had "perhaps tried to go too far", on anti-terror laws, he said.

He said: "That was probably an understandable feeling, that we should be more draconian. But perhaps that wasn't the right way to go."

Mr Johnson also criticised Tory plans for a cap on migrant numbers as "arbitrary" and claimed it would hurt businesses who needed to hire skilled staff.

Tory claims of an "open door" immigration system under Labour were a return to "dog whistle politics" he said.

The speech signalled a tougher line on migration from Mr Johnson, who has made few significant pronouncements on the subject.

Only months into the job, he told a committee of MPs he did not "lie awake at night" worrying about the population hitting 70million.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6485966/Labour-made-mistakes-over-immigration-Alan-Johnson-admits.html

Still Human Still Here

The Still Human Still Here Campaign

The Still Human Still Here campaign is dedicated to highlighting the plight of tens of thousands of refused asylum seekers who are destitute in the UK.

Supporters of the campaign believe that the denial of any means of subsistence to refused asylum seekers as a matter of government policy is both inhumane and ineffective.

We are calling on the Government to:

• End the threat and use of destitution as a tool of Government policy against refused asylum seekers
• Continue financial support and accommodation to refused asylum seekers as provided during the asylum process and grant permission to work until such a time as they have left the UK or have been granted leave to remain
• Continue to provide full access to health care and education throughout the same period

Get involved

You can get involved in ending the destitution of refused asylum seekers and support our current campaigns by checking out our Take Action section.

Find out more about the issues

Read the latest briefings and reports from the asylum sector on the destitution of asylum seekers in our Resources section.

Contact

Email us if you have any questions or if your organisation would like to support the Still Human Still Here campaign. Continue Reading »

campaign supporters

• Amnesty International UK
• Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England
• Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees
• Asylum Aid
• Asylum Rights Campaign
• Asylum Support and Immigration Resource Team
• Asylum Support Appeals Project
• Asylum Welcome
• Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales
• Church Action on Poverty
• Citizens Advice Bureau
• Crisis
• Ekklesia
• Immigration Advisory Service
• Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association
• Jesuit Refugee Service
• Jewish Council for Racial Equality
• Jewish Social Action Hub
• Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
• Médicins du Monde
• Medact
• Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture
• Migrants Resource Centre
• Mind
• Oxfam
• Positive Action in Housing
• Quaker Peace and Social Witness
• Red Cross
• Refugee Action
• Refugee and Migrant Justice
• Refugee Council
• Rights of Women
• Scottish Refugee Council
• Student Action for Refugees
• The Boaz Trust
• The Children’s Society
• The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund
• Waging Peace
• Welsh Refugee Council

Amnesty International Asylum and Refugee Campaign

Amnesty International Campaign: Refugees and Asylum

Amnesty's goal is to bring about a fair and effective asylum system. We attempt to achieve that goal in a number of ways - carrying out research into aspects of asylum policy and practice, developing proposals for improving those policies and practices, and then promoting our proposals with the government, members of parliament and other influential audiences.

Background

People across the world are forced to abandon their homes, their families and their livelihoods in order to escape persecution and conflict in their own countries.

The majority of the 17 million refugees, asylum seekers and others of concern to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), cross a border to flee to a neighbouring country to reach safety. Others risk hazardous journeys to reach the UK, a country where they may already have a link through the Commonwealth, language, relatives or an existing community.

HOW WIDESPREAD IS THE PROBLEM?

Governments and the media portray people on the move as a problem rather than people fleeing human rights abuses. Sophisticated immigration controls attest to governments' determination to prevent refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants from setting foot on their territories.

In many countries a growing number of people who have sought asylum are being detained.  In the UK, in spite of the decline in the numbers seeking asylum in recent years, the number of those detained solely under Immigration Act powers, including families with children, has increased. 

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

The 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (the Refugee Convention) and other international human rights treaties include the rights to:

• Protection from discrimination
• Freedom of religion
• Identity and travel documents
• Work, housing education and relief
• Protection from penalties for illegal entry
• Freedom of movement

Every refugee is the result of a government's failure to protect human rights.  Like anyone else, refugees have human rights.  They also have rights because they are refugees and are therefore entitled to international protection. 

UK REPORTS

Down and Out in London: The road to destitution for rejected asylum seekers(November 2006) In this report, Amnesty International has criticised the UK government's policy on rejected asylum seekers, which is forcing thousands into abject poverty. Amnesty believes that rejected asylum seekers are made destitute to force them to go home. More

Seeking Asylum is not a Crime (June 2005) Amnesty International challenged the government to reveal how many people who have sought asylum are detained each year and for how long. The organisation believes that many thousand people who sought asylum in the UK were detained solely under Immigration Act powers in 2004. More

Get It Right (February 2004) Amnesty International reveals Home Office asylum decisions are based on inaccurate and out-of-date country information, unreasoned decisions about people's credibility and a failure to properly consider complex torture cases. More

VIDEO: THE REMOVED

Watch a short film documenting the experiences of a family being taken into detention. The clip is produced by Camcorder Guerillas, a Glasgow-based collective of independent filmmakers.

The Removed A campaign video about asylum seekers in the UK

Scottish Detainee Visitors

Scottish Detainee Visitors Providing social, practical and emotional support to immigration detainees in Scotland

Scottish Detainee Visitors (SDV) is a registered charity that provides social, emotional and practical support to asylum and immigration detainees in Scotland.  SDV volunteers visit detainees in Dungavel Removal Centre on Monday and Thursday evenings. We aim to relieve the conditions of isolation and stress experienced by people detained by the immigration service, primarily at Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre, in South Lanarkshire. Interested in volunteering? Have a look at http://www.sdv.org.uk/id2.html to see how to go about getting involved.

Asylum System 'Damages Health

Wednesday, 24 October, 2001, 10:13 GMT 11:13 UK

Asylum system 'damages health'

Refugees receive a weekly allowance of around £30

Doctors are calling for an urgent overhaul of the UK's asylum system, saying it is affecting the health of many refugees.

The British Medical Association says it has a dossier of evidence outlining cases where doctors say government policy has damaged the well-being of asylum seekers or their children.

The study, produced with the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, says the controversial voucher system that asylum seekers have to use to buy food, clothing and other goods must be scrapped.

It also calls for an end to the dispersal system under which refugee families are moved away from the south east to places where there is not always the infrastructure to support them.

If you are an asylum seeker and you come to the UK, there is little chance your health will improve - in fact, it may well deteriorate

Dr Michael Wilks BMA ethics committee

Dr Michael Wilks, chairman of the BMA ethics committee, said: "The BMA has been concerned for some time about the effect of the voucher system and dispersal arrangements on health.

"Families have been housed in tiny bedsits, where a toddler has not been able to learn to walk because they simply do not have the space to walk in."

Doctors say they know that some children of asylum seekers are not being immunised or properly treated for chronic conditions because the forced dispersal policy results in a lack of continuity of treatment.

The treatment of mentally-ill asylum seekers is also causing concern.

In one case a young man walked 35 miles to see a psychiatrist as part of a report for his asylum claim.

He walked all through the night because he did not have any money for transport.

Asylum seekers receive a weekly allowance of around £30, two-thirds of which is in vouchers.

But supermarkets cannot give change on vouchers, prompting allegations these shops profit at the expense of the asylum seekers.

Diluting milk

Dr Wilks said: "The vouchers do not provide anything like the basic nutritional requirements for children or young mothers.

"We have examples of mothers diluting baby food and milk to make it last longer, so the nutritional value is reduced even further," he added.

Another case involved a family, including a very young baby, who ended up sleeping rough with no access to shelter, sanitation or food for several months.

The mother had stomach problems and the baby was not gaining weight.

Asylum seekers are entitled to free health care and have the right to be registered with a doctor.

But senior doctors say more interpreters and better counselling and other support services are needed to ensure they can receive treatment.

Blunkett: Radical overhaul

Dr Wilks said: "The current system is chaotic and offers little or no support.

"The only initiatives to help are at local level, which is disgraceful.

"Our members have reported some very worrying case histories from both hospitals and general practice," he added.

"A colleague working in a deprived part of London has an asylum seeker patient who lost his sight through being tortured, and has been living in appalling isolation in a very low standard of accommodation."

Dr Wilks concluded: "If you are an asylum seeker and you come to the UK, there is little chance your health will improve - in fact, it may well deteriorate."

Helen Bamber, Director of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, said: "We warned from the moment that 'no choice' dispersal was first mooted that widespread suffering and misery would result if asylum seekers were sent to areas where there was insufficient support.

"Sadly, in many parts of the country, we now see that prediction coming true."

Earlier this month Home Secretary David Blunkett promised the Labour Party conference that results of a review of asylum policies would be published within weeks.

He said a radical overhaul was on the way but had been delayed by work on anti-terrorism measures.

Former recruiter of child soldiers on trial

Lubanga trial set to test ICC

Lubanga has been accused of using child soldiers to fight in his Union of Congolese Patriots [AP] Thomas Lubanaga, the leader of an armed group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is set to go on trial on war crimes charges in the first case to be tried before the International Criminal Court. Lubanga, will face trial in The Hague on Monday accused of recruiting hundreds of child soldiers to fight in his Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) in the civil war in the country's eastern Ituri region between September 2002 and August 2003. He is also accused of leading an armed group that committed atrocities during a conflict that led to the deaths of 60,000 people. Humanitarian groups say the conflict has also created hundreds of thousands of refugees since 1999. The trial is being seen as a crucial test for the tribunal, as it tries to establish itself as a means of bringing war criminals to justice. The fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri region has centred around control of one of the most lucrative gold-mining territories in the world. Much of the fighting there has been between the UPC, composed mainly of ethnic Hema, and people from the Lendu ethnicity, laregly represented by a group called the Nationalist and Integrationist Front. Child soldiers The trial, the first at the court since it came into operation in July 2002, is set to open with a statement by Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC's chief prosecutor, followed by lawyers for 93 alleged victims and then the defence. IN VIDEO Lubanga goes on trial at ICC The first witness, a former child soldier, is expected to take the stand on Wednesday, followed by his father. The prosecution has listed 34 witnesses, including former child soldiers, ex-members of groups involved in the Ituri fighting. The prosecution also plans to call on an array of experts in such speciality areas as determining the age of a child from x-rays of bones. Lubanga, who is being held at a UN detention centre in the seaside suburb of Scheveningen in The Hague, has been declared destitute by the court, which is paying for his defence team. The International Criminal Court is the world's first permanent tribunal to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The trial is expected to last between six and nine months.