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News report from recent MEPs' visit to detention centres http://www.24dash.com/centralgovernment/29581.htm Detaining asylum seekers' children 'not humane'
Publisher: Pam Caulfield Published: 23/11/2007 - 16:19:29 PM
MEPs have argued that asylum seekers' children should not be held in detention centres The children of asylum seekers should not be held in detention centres, a group of Euro MPs said today. MEPs said the conditions the children found themselves in were "not humane" and urged the UK Government to find an alternative. The MEPs presented their preliminary findings after visiting three removal centres. They said conditions at Yarl\'s Wood, Bedfordshire, Oakington in Cambridgeshire and Harmondsworth, near Heathrow, were generally good. But Cypriot MEP Panayiotis Demetriou said the group had concerns over the length of time immigrants were held and the conditions for children. He said: "It's not an easy thing to send the children from their mother and their family. But it's not humane to see very young children confined in these centres under the rules of safety which are required to keep control of a centre. "This must be dealt with by the authorities." Ministers have argued it would be wrong to separate children of asylum seekers from their families. Lib Dem MEP Sarah Ludford criticised the housing of asylum seekers with foreign criminals awaiting deportation. She said: "Children should not be detained in immigration removal centres. It's problematic to confine ex-offenders with people who have not committed a criminal offence." The MEPs, from the European Parliament committee on civil rights, justice and home affairs, are visiting a series of European countries to examine how they deal with immigrants. Their full report is expected in the new year. A Border and Immigration Agency spokesperson said: "Detention is used only where necessary and this is especially true for families with children. "Detention of families is kept to the minimum period, subject to frequent and rigorous review and very few families are detained for more than just a few days. "Depending upon the individual circumstances of each case, we will always endeavour to keep families together. We believe it is in the best interest of the child to remain with their family. "We continue to seek alternatives to detention and we are currently piloting a scheme whereby those here illegally are housed in hostel accommodation rather than a detention centre. Should this pilot prove to be successful, we would explore extending it nationally." A Home Office spokeswoman said there are 44 children currently detained with their families. She said the system has a capacity to hold 164 families at once.
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