Woolas admits to detaining more than 1,300 children over 15 months – Petition passes 1,900
SNP MP Pete Wishart questions Home Office figures on child detention and states that holding children in adult detention centres is “simply wrong”. The immigration minister Phil Woolas, in a letter to Mr Wishart (who has signed Chris Mullin’s EDM), also revealed that 889 children from 488 families had been detained for more than 28 days between April 2004 and September 2009. Read the full story from BBC News.
Meanwhile, popular pressure on the prime minister continues to mount with more than 1,900 people now having signed the no10 petition calling for an end to child detention. ECDN agrees with Pete Wishart that because so many are re-detained or moved to other detention facilities, or held in emergency detention sites without any record being taken – the actual numbers are far higher than those quoted by Woolas. All the more reason for us to reach our 2,000 target to show the human cost of mass child detention – so please pass on the link to friends, family and colleagues. We are as heartened by the support of outraged members of the public as we are by that of eminent psychologists, doctors, academics, broadcasters and writers. So keep those names coming!
