Three teenagers who came to Britain as child refugees discuss their experiences on BBC Radio 4′s Woman’s Hour, 17/08/2010. You can listen to the interviews here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009g9d7
Shining a light on refugee children’s experience By Anthony Robinson Say the word ‘refugee’ to yourself. Without thinking, what images and notions enter your mind? Now, think about it. The last Saturday of Refugee Week 2010 was an important day in the lives of four refugee children and their families – a celebration of childhood [...]
In an announcement to the House of Commons on Wednesday 21 July, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister confirmed that Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre was to be closed for the purposes of detaining families. However, the Home Office corrected Mr Clegg’s initial statement that Yarl’s Wood as a facility was to close by confirming [...]
Colin Firth Re-posted from OpenDemocracy 15 July 2010 As the Coalition government reappraises how the UK treats those who seek sanctuary within its borders, OurKingdom publishes an article by actor Colin Firth based on his submission to the Home Office Review into Ending the Detention of Children for Immigration Purposes. Last month, at a Citizens [...]
Florence Potkins, aged 11, this month won her age category in the first ever Amnesty International / Guardian Learnnewsdesk Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year award for her powerful story about child detention. With kind permission of the Guardian, we’ve reproduced Florence’s story below, to mark national Refugee Week: Primary winner: Florence Potkins, 11, [...]
An 11 year old primary pupil’s powerful story highlighting the plight of child detainees in immigration centres has won the inaugural Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year award in her age group. The End Child Detention Now campaign congratulates Florence Potkins on winning this fantastic prize, and using the opportunity to tell such an [...]
New immigration plans will end child detention but we should be wary of substituting one form of state abuse with another. Simon Parker, Comment is Free, The Guardian, Friday 28 May 2010. The announcement in Tuesday’s Queen’s speech that along with a cap on non-EU immigration, the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat government no longer intends to [...]
Here we publish the entire letter that 13-year-old Malawian refugee, Wells Botomani wrote to the Children’s Commissioner, Sir Al Aynsley-Green about his incarceration in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre. Wells’ story is also published in today’s Society Guardian. Wells started the letter while in detention. It was left behind when the family was suddenly moved. So [...]
The first Children’s Commissioner for England, Sir Al Aynsley-Green, writing in The Guardian, calls on the government to release the families from Britain’s asylum prisons now. Aynsley-Green who has done more than any single person to expose the arrest and detention of innocent children, the injustices and sheer horror of their lived experiences, urges: ‘a [...]
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 [...]
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