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New concern that children are again being detained by immigration authorities
MRN reported earlier this week that the practice of detaining children in immigration removal centres appears to have been ended. It now seems that this is not the case....
August 11, 2010 BY Don Flynn
Information is emerging from the immigration detainee support networks which suggest that we might have been premature in our previous blog in saying that the detention of children seems to have been brought to and end by the coalition government.
Our comment then was based on an assertion made by immigration minister Damian Green on an edition of the BBC Radio 4 'Today' programme on Friday 6th August that there were now no children detained in any part of the immigration estate. Consultation with groups monitoring the situation at that time suggested that the coalition has been successful in ending the practice.
This now seems to have changed as reports have been received of the detention of at least one family which includes several young children in an immigration removal centre. Efforts are now been made to confirm whether this has happened, and why the minister appears to have been contradicted by the readmisson of children into detention.
BiD spokesperson, Sarah Campbell is cautioning people not to celebrate an end to child detention too early. UKBA have not yet announced a final end to the policy and have indicated that until they do they will maintain their prerogative to detain whenever they think it appropriate.
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Comments
Can you disclose the name of the family in detention and give us any details. Is there a campaign for them?
Mrs King
The detainee support organisations monitoring this situation - BiD in particular - are attempting to get more information about this and to find out if the family, if one is being detained, needs legal representaiton or other support. We will report more information as soon as we have it.
This is from today's Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/09/detention-children-immigration-centres
The government's policy shift emerged in answer to a question by the Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland over the long-term future of Yarl's Wood following the decision to close the family and child wing.
Green replied: "At the moment, we are looking at alternatives to detention for children … It is our intention to minimise the detention of children in the future as a whole and, therefore, that aspect of Yarl's Wood's use will disappear, but clearly not its use for adult women."
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