THAT'S END-DETAINMENT

The High Court has ruled that the detention of two single mothers and their children in Yarl’s Wood immigration centre was unlawful due to the lack of consideration given to the welfare of the children.

The judge acknowledged that ‘no one can seriously dispute that detention is capable of causing significant and in some instances long lasting harm to children’, and since the imprisonment of the minors in January/February 2010, one child has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress disorder.

In 2001, the UKBA changed their policy to allow the detention of children according to the same criteria as adults, whilst maintaining it would only be done in ‘exceptional circumstances’. Since then however, there have been numerous cases of children being detained as a standard procedure rather than as a last resort.

A Home Office spokesman has said that the detention of families would be kept to a minimum while officials drew up an alternative arrangement to protect the welfare of children without ‘undermining’ immigration law.