The arrest and detention of children subject to immigration control

Children's Commissioner Sir Al Aynsley-Green, published on Wednesday 17th February 2010, his latest report 'The arrest and detention of children subject to immigration control' on the detention of children in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre. here are some extracts from Executive summary to the report.

• Posted on Feb 17, 2010

"Detention is harmful to children and therefore never likely to be in their best interests. There is a growing body of evidence, not least from the medical Royal Colleges, that documents that detention has a profound and negative impact on children and young people. Therefore, while I welcome UKBA's commitment to implementing and realising many of the recommendations of my last report, I will continue to urge that the detention of all children should cease. Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre is no place for a child." Sir Al Aynsley-Green

Detention of all children should cease

Children's Commissioner Sir Al Aynsley-Green, published today Wednesday 17th February 2010, his latest report 'The arrest and detention of children subject to immigration control' on the detention of children in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre. Below some extracts from Executive summary to the report.

Download the full reportat : http://www.11million.org.uk/content/publications/content_394

Children commented on the loud or violent way in which homes were entered, rude behaviour or treatment by officers, and the shadowing of children using the bathroom and toilet. Children also complained about being physically escorted from their homes, thereby making them feel and look like criminals.

In subsequent questions only three children (and another three undecided) felt they had received an adequate explanation concerning what was happening on the day of arrest, and only three out of 14 children said that they knew what had happened to their property after their arrest. Children's comments are listed in full in the main report and clearly show that this process can have a significant impact and causes distress.

The use of 'caged vans' to transport children has now stopped. This is to be welcomed. However, one perhaps unintended consequence of this policy is that there appears to have been a coincident increase in the use of separate vehicles to transport children and parents at the point of arrest. We argue that separating young children from their parents - even for a short time during transportation - is potentially extremely damaging and should only be used in the most extreme circumstances.

Our concern remains that the accessibility of the formal complaints appeals process and young people's perception of the system's independence are still inadequate.

Problems that remain since our last visit include children not being able to retrieve friends' contact details from confiscated mobile telephones, and a lack of information about what had happened to their pets after their arrest.

Our examination highlights a number of improvements in healthcare. The majority of nurse and GP consultations contained an acceptable history and appropriate examination. Diagnosis was made logically and a healthcare professional would be able to take over care of the child from the information documented. Vaccination status was generally well recorded. Nonetheless, significant concerns in policy and practice remain. For example, while the initial nursing assessment was completed for all children in our sample the space for comment on 'emotional state' was inadequate for recording the general psychological state of the child, and often contained subjective and inadequate statements such as 'jolly' or 'happy'.

Similarly, the pro-forma used for the GP's initial medical record examination is inadequate for a proper assessment of a child's physical and emotional needs.

We are concerned that too many parents still arrive at Yarl's Wood without possessing the parent held health record (the Red Book).

Issues regarding vaccinations are detailed in particular gaps in the use of MMR and BCG vaccinations. We also call for children's weight to be recorded on a growth chart and to review the false distinction between children under five who were prescribed malarial chemoprophylaxis and those marginally older who were not. We are concerned that bed nets are still not being provided for those returning to regions with endemic malaria. We highlight a number of individual cases in chapter seven that caused us concern with reference to the adequacy of welfare assessments. These may not necessarily reflect the general quality of care, but illustrate how lessons from these incidents need to be learnt. For example, four accidents were recorded as leading to referral to Bedford Hospital's Accident and Emergency department. In one case there was an unacceptably poor nurse consultation which compounded a delay of over 24 hours before the child, who had suffered a fracture of her arm, was taken to hospital. That this happened must be symptomatic of a failure to provide, as the UKBA claims it does, a standard of NHS care that any citizen child could expect.

we raise a number of concerns about compliance with the need for staff to work together. Some of these cases are cause for serious concern and we will continue to demand evidence that safeguarding arrangements and policies meet national standards. We draw particular attention to the failure to recognise harm in specific cases whose records we examined, and the quality of intervention following referral to the local authority's Children's Social Care. There are specific cases that caused us concern. Their details are noted in the main report and the issues they raise have been brought to the attention of the appropriate authorities.

There was evidence from our visit and audit of records that children in detention have emotional and psychological needs that are not always being met.

Source for this Message:
Children's Commissioner

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