Chris Huhne

Liberal Democrats call for end to child detention

Liberal Democrat Spring Conference today pledged its commitment to ending child detention in immigration centres.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:

“It is a moral stain on this country’s proud reputation in accepting refugees that we are routinely locking up children for months at a time even though they have committed no crime.

“Locking children up in this way can do them serious physical and psychological harm. This is the behaviour of the Victorian workhouses, not 21st century Britain.

“The Government must find its long lost moral compass and put an end to child detention immediately.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The text of the motion is below:

Conference notes with concern that:

i)Around 2,000 children are detained at Yarl’s Wood detention centre and elsewhere in the UK each year, for an average of two weeks.

ii)In June 470 children, most of them under five, were being held in detention centres, and a third were held for longer than 28 days.

iii)Children are not just detained immediately before they are removed from the UK. 889 children have been held in detention centres for longer than a month during the last five years and a large proportion of detained children are eventually released.

iv)Conditions in detention centres cannot be monitored by campaigners and have been described as ‘prison-like’.

v)Medical Royal Colleges, children’s groups and refugee groups are united in their condemnation of this practice and of the detrimental effect it has on young minds and bodies.

vi)In 2009, the Children’s Commissioner raised serious concerns about the nutrition and healthcare children and nursing mothers receive in detention centres and called for the immediate end to the detention of children.

Conference reaffirms the Liberal Democrat commitment to:

a)Creating an immigration system that is firm but fair.

b)The humane treatment of all children, regardless of their immigration status.

c)The British tradition of open-heartedness and generosity to those most in need.

d)This country’s proud history of providing sanctuary to the world’s persecuted.

Conference therefore calls for:

1.The immediate end to the detention of children under 18 in immigration detention centres.

2.The incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into UK law.

3.Alternative systems such as electronic tagging, stringent reporting requirements and residence restrictions to be used on adults in families considered high flight risks.

4.The long-term development of alternative methods of securing compliance with immigration decisions, such as those found in Sweden, Canada and Australia.

5.Responsibility for the asylum system to be taken away from the Home Office and given to a Canadian-style independent agency.

Applicability: Federal.

2) Below is the text of Chris Huhne’s speech in favour of the motion:

There is a country that every year locks up a thousand children who have committed no crime. Not China nor Iran. Not even North Korea. It is Britain. Not twenty years ago, not fifty. Today.

Whatever the cartoon characters painted on the walls, the children know when the door clangs shut and the key turns. They can see the razor wire and the security fence. Yarl’s Wood is more like a prison than a home.

The Home Office is not proud of what it is doing. If it was, it would not have insisted that I visit on my own. They even vetoed Sally Hamwee who does such a great job in the Lords, let alone that great campaigner Henry Porter.

Yarl’s Wood is shocking. Hundreds of children, most of them under five, are languishing in detention centres in the UK. Some are held for months at a time. Many are not even deported in the end.

There is a growing body of evidence that imprisoning these children is damaging their young bodies and minds. Medical experts, children’s organisations and refugee groups are united in their condemnation.

This brutalising practice of incarcerating innocent children undermines Britain’s proud history of providing sanctuary to the world’s oppressed. It is a hallmark of a civilised nation that we offer refuge to those fleeing war, torture and repression.

People who try to cheat or abuse the asylum system should, of course, be dealt with swiftly in a system that is firm but fair. In Britain today, our system is neither – managing to combine incompetence with cruelty. The regular imprisonment of families, often for months on end, is the most distressing example of both.

Labour and the Tories will tell you that there is no alternative to locking up families awaiting deportation. This is simply not true. Families are among those with the lowest risk of disappearing off the authorities’ radar.

Anyone with an experience of small children will understand how difficult it is to make a quick getaway with toddlers in tow. If there are concerns about absconding, this motion offers more civilised alternatives to the detention of families – electronic tagging of adults; restrictions on where they can live; or detailed reporting requirements.

In the long term, we must learn from other countries which have created systems that both support asylum seekers and increase compliance with immigration decisions.

In Sweden, families with children have their health and support needs assessed before being dispersed to regional refugee centres. They are housed in flats round a central office and assigned caseworkers who offer legal advice, counselling and healthcare. That is an asylum system fit for the 21st Century. Our current system – so at odds with the British tradition of open-heartedness and generosity to those most in need – should be a source of shame to us all.

Conference, it is time to clean up the moral stain on this nation’s character. It is time to end the barbaric practice of locking up children who have committed no crime for months on end. It is unnecessary. It is inhumane. It is un-British. It has to stop. Conference, I urge you to vote for the motion.