End Child Detention Now

Jacqueline Wilson, Quentin Blake, Michael Rosen, Benjamin Zephaniah, Julia Donaldson and sixty other leading children’s authors and illustrators have written to Gordon Brown urging him to stop detaining children.

In a letter that appears in today’s OBSERVER, the writers and illustrators condemn the detention policy and strongly support children’s commissioner Sir Al Aynsley Green, the Royal Colleges of Paediatrics & Child Health, General Practitioners and Psychiatrists, and the Faculty of Public Health in their calls for its immediate cessation.

END CHILD DETENTION NOW warmly thanks all the writers and illustrators who signed the letter. Our special thanks are due to Beverley Naidoo who kindly lent her wisdom and labour to this project.

Dear Mr Brown,

As writers and illustrators of books for children, we urge you to stop detaining children whose families have sought asylum in the UK.

We strongly support those doctors represented by the Royal Colleges of Paediatrics & Child Health, General Practitioners and Psychiatrists, the Faculty of Public Health and the Children’s Commissioner Sir Al Aynsley-Green, in the concerns they have expressed about the trauma being experienced by children whose families have sought asylum in the UK.

These children have already had their worlds torn apart and witnessed their parents in turmoil and in stress. No wonder that paediatricians and psychologists report that child detainees are confused, fearful, unable to sleep, suffer headaches, tummy pains and weight loss and exhibit severe emotional and behavioural problems (Child Abuse and Neglect 2009; 33: 573 – http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/resources/documents/Campaigns/19432.html.) <http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/resources/documents/Campaigns/19432.html.)> .

The UK Border Agency asserts that ‘Treating children with care and compassion is a priority’, but it continues with the policy of child detention which has been shown to harm children. The Government must end child detention, now.

Beverley Naidoo

Michael Rosen   

Jacqueline Wilson  

Michael Morpurgo   

Quentin Blake  

Carol Ann Duffy  

Michael Bond   

Benjamin Zephaniah   

Philip Pullman

Jackie Kay  

David Almond  

Jamila Gavin   

Lynne Reid Banks

Tim Bowler   

Meg Rosoff

Francesca Simon

Elizabeth Laird   

Jeremy Strong   

Louisa Young (Zizou Corder)   

Mary Hoffman   

Linda Newbery   

Gillian Cross

Julia Donaldson  

Catherine and Laurence Anholt

Bernard Ashley      

Tony Bradman   

Catherine Johnson   

Celia Rees

Ifeoma Onyefulu   

Karin Littlewood    

Niki Daly      

Chris Cleave   

Bali Rai

Eleanor Updale   

Prodeepta Das      

Debjani Chatterjee   

Moira Munro   

Anne Rooney   

Elen Caldecott   

Frances Thomas  

Gwen Grant   

John Dougherty   

Julia Green   

Karen King     

Katherine Langrish   

Leila Rasheed   

Leslie Wilson   

Mary Hooper   

Ann Harries

Ann Turnbull   

Rosemary Stones

Shereen Pandit   

Nicki Cornwell   

Valerie Bloom

Anna Perera

Maya Naidoo    

Graham Gardner

Alan Gibbons

Jan Needle

Anthony McGowan

Paul Stewart

Chris Riddell

Katharine Quarmby

Ally Kennen

Chris Priestley