Bah, Humbug

“Bah, Humbug, said Scrooge” 

The Government was today accused of humbug over its policy towards children in the asylum system and the Home Affairs Committee as naïve and failing to address the right issues by the Immigration Advisory Service.

On 31 January 2008 the then Immigration Minister Liam Byrne MP said that “A host of new measures will ensure that children in the immigration system are dealt with humanely and compassionately.”  He claimed "I am hopeful too that we can avoid detaining children who are awaiting removal in most cases and today can announce that we will be piloting alternatives to detention.”

“That alternative to detention ended in the scandal of one family being removed at a cost of more than £1 million” said Keith Best, Chief Executive of IAS. “Although it seems that the new experiment in Glasgow may be slightly better already one family has dropped out.

“The main scandal, however, is that the UK Border Agency continue to detain children despite having removed the reservation on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Its protestations are mere window-dressing. The effect of immigration detention on children is devastating. One only has to read the report of the Children’s Commissioner into the situation at Yarl’s Wood and the harrowing tale told by Sir Al Aynsley Green about a young girl who tried to commit suicide on her return there. One only has to listen to the concerns of Dame Anne Owers, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons, who says that at any one time of the more than 400 children detained half of them are less than five years old.

“All this amounts to massive humbug. The Minister may mouth platitudes about the welfare of children but cannot explain why Ministerial approval is always given to detention of individuals who are held for more than 28 days.

“The only way in which the Government can honour its commitment to the UN Convention and to its own legislation which puts the interests of children as paramount is to end once and for all any detention of children for whatever period. That is what should have emanated from the Home Affairs Committee today rather than the mealy mouthed concern that the detention of children is for too long and should be used only as a last resort. How many children will be held in detention over Christmas – perhaps Scrooge could tell us.”

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CONTACT:	Keith Best, Chief Executive
Telephone:	020 7967 1221 (office)
	07785 323200 (mobile)
	020 7735 7699 (home)
	website: www.iasuk.org (see Press Office)