Ask every party what they are going to do about ending child detention
Here are 3 key questions that we are urging supporters to ask their candidates during the current 2010 election with follow-up information. Postings to on-line discussion forums, calls to radio and TV phone-ins and direct questions at public meetings are strongly encouraged.
We would also like to hear from you about candidates who have pledged to support an end to child detention in the next parliament (and those who prefer to sit on the fence or refuse to support the humanitarian treatment of children and their families) so that we can publicise the names on our website. Email us at info@ecdn.org
Question 1:
How does your party intend to address the scandal of children being locked up in immigration detention centres?
The practice of locking up children in immigration detention centres has been condemned by the three Royal Colleges of Medicine, the UK Faculty of Public Health, the then Children’s Commissioner for England, the Scottish Government, the Synod of the Church of England, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Archbishop of Wales, the Chair of the Urban Bishops Panel, the Moderator of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, the Chair of the Office for Migration Policy of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, leading Rabbis, and all the major children’s charities as well as 121 Members of Parliament.
Question 2:
What will you do to ensure that every child matters – and that innocent children do not spend days, weeks and months locked up in conditions known to cause long term harm to their physical and mental health?
There is authoritative, irresistible and mounting evidence from the Children’s Commissioner for England, The Independent Monitoring Board for Yarl’s Wood, health professionals, welfare and rights groups, academics and inspectorates that children are being consistently and routinely harmed in detention. The Lorek report ‘The Mental and Physical Health Difficulties of Children Held Within a British Immigration Detention Center: A Pilot Study’, Child Abuse and Neglect, 33:573-585 details chilling accounts of the long term damage that babies, children and young people suffer. In 2008 the average length of stay in Yarl’s Wood IRC has actually doubled from 8–16 days, according to Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons and at least a third of child inmates are detained for more than a month.
Question 3:
What is your position on Britain complying with Article 22 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?
Britain removed its reservation against Article 22 of the UNCRC but continues to detain approximately 2,000 children per annum. Grave concerns were expressed by Thomas Hammarberg the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe in Sept 2008 concerning the detention of children including unaccompanied minors by the UKBA.
