Obstacles to accountability: challenging the immigration detention of families

A critique of the UK government's policy of detaining families was published on July 5, 2007

• Posted on Jul 6, 2007

A critique of the UK government's policy of detaining families was published yesterday (5 July 2007) by Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID). Obstacles to accountability: challenging the immigration detention of families.

BID's publication follows last week's announcement by the immigration Minister that the Border and Immigration Agency's policies concerning children are to be overhauled, as set out in a paper called 'Keeping Children Safe from Harm'.

BID's handbook shows how children are being damaged by immigration detention because

* No special consideration is given to the needs or best interests of children when deciding to detain a family

* Detention is not clearly justified in each case, and existing alternatives to detention are not fully considered

* Families, and children, do not fully understand why they are detained, have no automatic legal representation and their detention is not subject to a time-limit or independent review

* Processes for welfare assessments of families and ministerial authorisation for detention beyond 28 days do not protect children from prolonged and harmful detention.

"Our handbook shows that unless detention ends, children can not be kept safe from harm. If the recent government announcements are to mean anything for children, there must be a commitment to ending detention of families" said Sarah Cutler, Assistant Director at BID
http://www.biduk.org/pdf/children/BIDFamilyHandbookFINAL.pdf

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