As the government announces that Dungavel will no longer be used for the detention of children, but will be re-purposed as ‘a health check’ facility for families who are facing removal, young mother Sehar Shebaz and her baby are being transported in a prison van to Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire from where [...]
Last night an 8 month old baby and her mother were arrested, taken from their home and forcibly detained in Dungavel immigration removal centre in Scotland. So what’s going on..? On 12 May, the new government said, ‘We will end the detention of children for immigration purposes’. There was nothing in the declaration to indicate [...]
If they mean the immediate closure of Yarl’s Wood, that should be a cause for great rejoicing. This is why we must hold them to it By Clare Sambrook (from OpenDemocracy, 12 May 2010). ‘We will end the detention of children for immigration purposes,’ says today’s coalition agreement. A stunning victory for children, decency and the [...]
In the early hours of this morning, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister issued a statement in which as part of a Tory commitment to put a cap on immigration it was agreed to put an end to child detention immigration controls (the latter was a Lib Dem proposal). End Child Detention Now believes that this [...]
This post originally appeared on Brighton’s TheArgus.co.uk. It was easy for me to put my questions directly to the Brighton Pavilion candidates because they’ve been fighting it out on Twitter. I didn’t even need to leave the house. My most pressing question concerns child detention. I’ve been involved in a citizens’ campaign to end the [...]
On Monday, at the Citizen’s UK leaders’ debate Gordon Brown found himself forced to face the question of child detention, despite initially trying to avoid the question.
A version of this post initially appeared on openDemocracy’s OurKingdom. Following Brown’s speech to Citizens UK on Monday (May 3), there was a remarkable moment during which the Prime Minister, who was attempting to leave the stage, was challenged by the assembled citizens on whether he would put an end to the government’s detention of [...]
End Child Detention Now is urging all its supporters to get behind the inspiring Citizens for Sanctuary prospective parliamentary candidate pledge campaign which is especially emphasising the scandalous detention of children by the UK immigration authorities. Dozens of PPCs have signed up to the pledge – but many more have yet to declare their support. [...]
In its latest issue, Private Eye wonders why immigration minister Phil Woolas is “being so bullish about locking up children and giving them fewer rights than a criminal” in the face of “mounting” evidence against the practice. (Click on article to view).
Phil Woolas’s defence of the inhumane Yarl’s Wood removal centre reflects Labour’s shift to the right on asylum Simon Parker, The Guardian, Comment is Free, Thursday 25 March 2010, 15.00 GMT. Phil Woolas’s response to a further damning report on Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre by the chief inspector of prisons shows that the government has [...]
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