A committee of MPs have attacked the government over its policy of detaining child asylum-seekers in prison-like holding centres.
The committee said that the detention of children amounted to punishing the innocent and should be used only as a last resort.
The comments were made as campaigners seeking to prevent the deportation of a nine-year-old Iranian boy currently detained in Yarl's Wood said that the child had been so traumatised he had been vomiting blood.
Referred to as Child M, the young boy from Gorton in Manchester is currently being held in Yarl's Wood detention centre with his mother and older brother.
Frantic efforts from his supporters, his MP Gerald Kaufman and his legal representatives prevented his planned removal to Iran last Friday evening.
A spokesman for the Child M Must Stay campaign said: "His mother sent a message to her friends saying: 'He is ill from dinner to now. He is vomiting all the time and has stomach ache.
"The officer said it doesn't matter, he'll go to the doctor tomorrow. From 4am, he vomited just blood. I know at the moment everyone is asleep but I want you to know that it's not safe in here for children. Please pray for him in the morning'."
In its report, members of the Home Affairs select committee found detention periods of up to 61 days were not uncommon for some youngsters - with the average term being more than a fortnight.
Chairman Keith Vaz said: "It is not acceptable that we are detaining so many children for such long periods of time. These children have done nothing wrong. They should not be being punished.
"It must always be absolutely the last resort to keep a child detained for any length of time."
Nearly 1,000 children a year are detained in UK Border Agency detention centres.
The committee said the rationale for detention was the risk of absconding, but found there was no evidence of families "systematically" disappearing.
MPs singled out Yarl's Wood, where most children are detained and whose conditions have been criticised in the past.
Committee members praised recent improvements but said the facility remained "essentially a prison."
But Bail for Immigration Detainees, which represent families in Yarl's Wood, said that the report did not go far enough.
Spokeswoman Amanda Shah said: "In particular, we disagree with the committee's acceptance of the detention of children for short periods of time, particularly as research released last month showed that even relatively brief periods of time spent in immigration detention can damage a child's mental and physical health."
Earlier this year, Children's Commissioner Sir Al Aynsley-Green called for an end to the practice because of the harmful effects on children's health and wellbeing.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/83862 - 29.11.09
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário