The Control of Immigration: Quarterly Statistical Summary (April-June 2009), released by the Home Office, contains for the first time more comprehensive figures about children held in immigration detention.
Amanda Shah, Assistant Director at Bail for Immigration Detainees and Lisa Nandy, Policy Adviser at The Children’s Society, comment:
“The Home Office has taken a step in the right direction by releasing this statistical information, as, unbelievably, proper data on the number of children entering and leaving immigration detention has until now not been officially released. These children have therefore been hidden in an inhumane system which holds them without time limit in prison-like conditions.
The statistics do however reveal the scandalous extent of the detention of children for immigration purposes, and confirm our deep concerns about the way children are being detained. 29% of children were detained for over a month, contrary to Home Office policy that children are only detained for the shortest possible time.
56% of detained children were released back to their communities in the UK, their detention having served no purpose other than wasting taxpayers’ money and traumatising the children involved.
Children from countries such as Zimbabwe, Somalia and Sri Lanka were detained at a time when either the Home Office was not enforcing returns to those countries or when those countries were widely recognised to be in conflict.
The Home Office must urgently reverse its policy of detaining children and families for immigration purposes.”
