Should the children of asylum seekers be held in detention centres while their applications are processed?
Posted on February 3rd, 2010 by admin
"Civil rights solicitor Fiona Murphy has condemned new Labour for failing to comply with its own policies on the detention of children seeking asylum."
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/86211
‘Ms Murphy, who works for specialist London-based law firm Bhatt Murphy, said children involved in asylum cases were being held in "prison-type" conditions.’
The case referred to was the result of a family being detained five years ago in 2004 in Oakington IRC. This centre has since been designated a male only centre and women, children and families are no longer detained there. It is an old facility and very prison like, being ex RAF barracks.
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/managingborders/immigrationremovalcentres/oakingtonremovalcentre
There are currently three centres in the UK suitable for families: Tinsley House, Dungavel and Yarl’s Wood. As you can see from the links, these are more open detention centres and have facilities that are suited to families.
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/managingborders/immigrationremovalcentres/dungavel
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/managingborders/immigrationremovalcentres/tinsleyhouse
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/managingborders/immigrationremovalcentres/yarlswood
Conditions have improved immensely in detention centres where families and children are held and since spaces are so few and far between, they are now only used for imminent removal cases. In total in the UK there are only about 3,000 detention places. Less than 320 of those are family spaces.
This is not the only case where the government has had to fork out large amounts of money for detaining children in these conditions, although to be fair, it is not just the detention that allows them to sue the government. In these cases there were alternatives available to detention or the parents had not exhausted the legal asylum process and so were not subject to removal, or there was mistreatment as in this case. They are not suing on the basis of detention alone.
Detention should only be used when status or identity has to be confirmed or there has been a breach of immigration rules or refusal of asylum and removal is imminent.
Here’s another case from last year about another family detained in 2006 who were awarded £150,000..
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/asylum-detainees-win-record-payout-1608207.html
An extract from Chris Cleave’s website:
In 2001 an Angolan man named Manuel Bravo fled to England and claimed asylum on the grounds that he and his family would be persecuted and killed if they were returned to Angola. He lived in a state of uncertainty for four years pending a decision on his application. Then, without warning, in September 2005 Manuel Bravo and his 13-year-old son were seized in a dawn raid and interned at an Immigration Removal Centre in southern England. They were told that they would be forcibly deported to Angola the next morning. That night, Manuel Bravo took his own life by hanging himself in a stairwell. His son was awoken in his cell and told the news. What had happened was that Manuel Bravo, aware of a rule under which unaccompanied minors cannot be deported from the UK, had taken his own life in order to save the life of his son. Among his last words to his child were: “Be brave. Work hard. Do well at school.”"
Chris was commenting on the real life story behind a scene in his book The Other Hand.
The subject of detention is about far more than removing illegal immigrants. It’s not a black and white issue, nor is it a one-sided issue.
I am not a left-wing, liberal do gooder, far from it. I don’t in any way condone illegal immigration BUT I do believe that our compassion and humanity in the way we treat these people, especially children who are the innocents in this, marks us as as a nation.
February 3rd, 2010 at 8:20 pm
So we let them out, give them a place in a school, let them make friends then say, I see you have built a life for yourself here so it would be wrong to send you home. Here’s a house and all the benefits you need to support yourself. Dam right they should stay in a detention centre. Im not saying they shouldn’t be well looked after but come on.
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February 3rd, 2010 at 8:37 pm
I am sure the secure facilities the children are kept in are much better than the conditions they are seeking asylum from. And if they are not, they should not be seeking asylum.
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February 3rd, 2010 at 8:44 pm
I would have thought they would be far more scared being separated from their Parents in a strange land where they don’t speak the language. If they are truly fleeing a country where their lives are in danger then a few months locked up being fed and clothed isn’t harsh.
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February 3rd, 2010 at 8:56 pm
No of course they shouldn’t. Nowhere else in Europe does this and it is completely draconian.
Incidentally, I just got this email today advertising a petition to number 10 on the issue.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NoChildDetention/
In the UK we routinely detain the children of asylum seekers in removal centres, prisons in all but name. We detain 2000 children every year, many for months on end. These children have committed no crime. They, or their parents, have simply exercised their right to claim asylum.
The children of asylum seekers are the only children who may be detained without time limit and the UK is the only European country where this happens. Australia, for example, has pledged to never put another asylum seeking child in a detention centre. For many families, detention unearths past terrors and causes psychological distress. Cut off from family and friends, children in detention experience insomnia, weight loss, depression and self harm. Children’s Commissioner for England, Sir Al Aynsley Green, visited Yarl’s Wood removal centre to interview child detainees and called for child detention to end immediately.
Please sign the above petition.
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February 3rd, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Let’s have a bit of humanity here, their parents may or may not be genuine asylum seekers but that’s no reason to keep their children in inhumane conditions.
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February 3rd, 2010 at 9:36 pm
yes
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February 3rd, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Children need to remain with their parents in detention. If the conditions in their own country are so frightening and dangerous to them, then they are safer in detention. Plus they are well fed. Especially since over 95% of asylum applicants these days are in fact illegal aliens making bogus claims in order to delay their deportation, it is imperative that "asylum seekers" be held during their processing and appear in court for their scheduled hearing, then immediately deported if their claims are unsubstantiated and unfounded (as almost every claim is these days).
I have interviewed many asylum seekers and program administrators for asylum adjudication. Among asylum claims from Haiti, for example, over 1/3 all stated "my father-in-law was killed by the Tonton Macoutes." (yes, precisely the exact words on thousands of applications.) Thousands of people all had their fathers-in-law killed by the Tonton Macoutes back in the 1970s and are afraid of them 30 years after the TM are gone? Give me a break… they paid smugglers to help them prepare a "story" for their asylum application so that if they caught as illegal aliens, they could apply for asylum and delay their deportation! And the last comes straight from the illegal alien "asylum seekers" themselves.
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February 3rd, 2010 at 10:41 pm
Yes especially as most asylum seekers are bogus anyway.
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February 3rd, 2010 at 11:27 pm
No, they shouldn’t, and it is good that there are campaigns against it from so many different groups now.
No one is talking about taking children away from their parents in detention centres but about finding an alternative for the whole family where possible, and there are also unaccompanied children who better alternatives should be found for.
More information and links here, thanks Andrew btw, I’ll be signing the petition.
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http://www.journal-online.co.uk/article/6243-does-santa-visit-detention-centres
February 3rd, 2010 at 11:41 pm
No. Unicef still reports that the UK treats its children much worse that any other developed country in the world.
We are a world pariah.
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UNICEF
February 4th, 2010 at 12:08 am
The case referred to was the result of a family being detained five years ago in 2004 in Oakington IRC. This centre has since been designated a male only centre and women, children and families are no longer detained there. It is an old facility and very prison like, being ex RAF barracks.
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/managingborders/immigrationremovalcentres/oakingtonremovalcentre
There are currently three centres in the UK suitable for families: Tinsley House, Dungavel and Yarl’s Wood. As you can see from the links, these are more open detention centres and have facilities that are suited to families.
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/managingborders/immigrationremovalcentres/dungavel
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/managingborders/immigrationremovalcentres/tinsleyhouse
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/managingborders/immigrationremovalcentres/yarlswood
Conditions have improved immensely in detention centres where families and children are held and since spaces are so few and far between, they are now only used for imminent removal cases. In total in the UK there are only about 3,000 detention places. Less than 320 of those are family spaces.
This is not the only case where the government has had to fork out large amounts of money for detaining children in these conditions, although to be fair, it is not just the detention that allows them to sue the government. In these cases there were alternatives available to detention or the parents had not exhausted the legal asylum process and so were not subject to removal, or there was mistreatment as in this case. They are not suing on the basis of detention alone.
Detention should only be used when status or identity has to be confirmed or there has been a breach of immigration rules or refusal of asylum and removal is imminent.
Here’s another case from last year about another family detained in 2006 who were awarded £150,000..
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/asylum-detainees-win-record-payout-1608207.html
An extract from Chris Cleave’s website:
In 2001 an Angolan man named Manuel Bravo fled to England and claimed asylum on the grounds that he and his family would be persecuted and killed if they were returned to Angola. He lived in a state of uncertainty for four years pending a decision on his application. Then, without warning, in September 2005 Manuel Bravo and his 13-year-old son were seized in a dawn raid and interned at an Immigration Removal Centre in southern England. They were told that they would be forcibly deported to Angola the next morning. That night, Manuel Bravo took his own life by hanging himself in a stairwell. His son was awoken in his cell and told the news. What had happened was that Manuel Bravo, aware of a rule under which unaccompanied minors cannot be deported from the UK, had taken his own life in order to save the life of his son. Among his last words to his child were: “Be brave. Work hard. Do well at school.”"
Chris was commenting on the real life story behind a scene in his book The Other Hand.
The subject of detention is about far more than removing illegal immigrants. It’s not a black and white issue, nor is it a one-sided issue.
I am not a left-wing, liberal do gooder, far from it. I don’t in any way condone illegal immigration BUT I do believe that our compassion and humanity in the way we treat these people, especially children who are the innocents in this, marks us as as a nation.
References :
February 4th, 2010 at 12:36 am
Hi there
How come the family from Bolivia were claiming asylum in the UK? Surely we were not the first safe country they came to?
Surely we have got the daftest system that is wide open to abuse.
It costs thousands of pounds to keep families in these secure places and are never done as a first option because of the costs involved. I guess the family accessed Legal Aid to fund the legal action. I’ve paid into this fund through taxation I have paid. I resent someone receiving this when they have made no contribution.
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My opinion.
February 4th, 2010 at 12:57 am
No, I don’t think they broke any laws to actually be detained. (Oh please dont preach about any immigration laws, all of them are worth shit anyhow in every damn nation there is.)
I’m just wondering how did britain with its fear of everything foreign manage to conquer so much land.
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February 4th, 2010 at 1:06 am
Yes, but there should be no need for detention centres, as Max says most are bogus so should be deported immediately.
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February 4th, 2010 at 1:43 am
The simplest way to resolve this is to deport the Illegal Immigrants immediately and to speed up the removal of those who ‘claim’ political asylum, whose countries are now safe.
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February 4th, 2010 at 2:30 am
Keep every applicant in a detention centre,no matter what age they are.
If the applicant is genuine,they will not care,as it is better than what awaits them if they return home.
This is assuming that no applicants are making false claims-which of course none would dream of doing,would they?
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February 4th, 2010 at 3:03 am
YES
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February 4th, 2010 at 3:08 am
It would be easier to place the family on an island around our shores. Than waste money on prisons and social work visits etc.
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February 4th, 2010 at 3:13 am
If Fiona Murphy feels so strongly why doesn’t she put them up in her house?
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February 4th, 2010 at 3:57 am
Yes… and they should be examined, too.
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