What others say about the immigration detention of children
The OutCry! campaign is by no means alone in believing that the immigration detention of children is harmful and should end. Below you can read the views of several other organisations and individuals who have criticised the Government’s policy, ranging from journalists and politicians to authors, medical professionals and international bodies.
"It is vitally important that Her Majesty’s Government and those agencies working together for the benefit of children consider how best to protect the dignity and wellbeing of children and families in this country. I commend ‘OutCry!’ for their commitment to this process, and to the search for effective and humane alternatives to detaining children."
- Sentamu Ebor, Archbishop of York
“What sort of country sends a dozen uniformed officers to haul innocent sleeping children out of their beds; gives them just a few minutes to pack what belongings they can grab; pushes them into stinking caged vans; drives them for hours while refusing them the chance to go to the lavatory so that they wet themselves and locks them up sometimes for weeks or months without the prospect of release and without adequate health services? My country, apparently.”
- BBC Home Affairs Editor, Mark Easton – “Children in detention in Yarl’s Wood”
“One of the best ways to judge the moral compass of a nation is how we treat children - all children.
There is now concrete evidence that the very young children who find themselves locked up even though they've done nothing wrong are suffering weight loss, post traumatic stress disorder and long lasting mental distress.
How on earth can your Government justify what is in effect state sponsored cruelty?”
- Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, in an open letter to Gordon Brown
“The three Royal Colleges and the UK Faculty of Public Health believe that the administrative immigration detention of children, young people and their families is harmful and unacceptable and call on the Government to see this issue as a matter of priority and stop detaining children without delay….Other countries have developed viable alternatives to children being held in administrative immigration detention. Now the three Royal Colleges and the UK Faculty of Public Health call for the UK to follow suit as soon as possible.”
Michael Bond kindly forwarded this comment from Paddington Bear:
”Whenever I hear about children from foreign countries being put into detention centres, I think how lucky I am to be living at number 32 Windsor Gardens with such nice people as Mr. and Mrs. Brown.
Mrs. Bird, who looks after the Browns, says if she had her way she would set the children free and lock up a few politicians in their place to see how they liked it!”
- Paddington Bear (With thanks to Michael Bond)
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
"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. The Yarl’s Wood detention centre remains essentially a prison, and that is no place for a child. It must always be absolutely the last resort to keep a child detained for any length of time. Families with children are not a high risk for “disappearing” or absconding."
“[The UK government should] intensify its efforts to ensure that detention of asylum-seeking and migrant children is always used as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, in compliance with article 37(b) of the Convention.”
”What kind of country are we? Our government ratifies the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child but locks up children refused asylum on our shores. When shall we face the mirror of shame?”
- Beverley Naidoo, Carnegie Medal-winning novelist www.beverleynaidoo.com
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
“This study clearly provides evidence that the British system of immigration detention, although often relatively brief, is nevertheless potentially harmful to the mental and physical well-being of children. These findings support those of previous reports that detention is not in the best interest of the child and should not be used for the purposes of immigration control. As there is currently no clear evidence to indicate that detention is necessary in order to prevent families from absconding, more humane alternatives to current practice must be explored.”
"It’s appalling to think small children are treated so brutally, transported in cages and locked up for months. We need to stop such harsh detaining of asylum-seeking children. Good luck with the campaign.”
- Jacqueline Wilson, former Children’s Laureate www.jacquelinewilson.co.uk
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
"The plight of detained children remained of great concern. While child welfare services had improved, an immigration removal centre can never be a suitable place for children and we were dismayed to find cases of disabled children being detained and some children spending large amounts of time incarcerated. We were concerned about ineffective and inaccurate monitoring of length of detention in this extremely important area. Any period of detention can be detrimental to children and their families, but the impact of lengthy detention is particularly extreme."
“Detaining children for administrative reasons is never likely to be in their best interests or to contribute to meeting the Government’s outcomes for children under the Every Child Matters framework. The administrative detention of children for immigration purposes should therefore end.”
”Any imprisonment is traumatising, but imprisoning children who have not robbed, or shot anyone, children who by their very nature look to adults for love and support must be seen as child cruelty. It doesn't matter if the child is locked up in a room at the back of a house, or a room at the back of a field, it will affect, and stay with the child for the rest of its life.”
- Benjamin Zephaniah, Poet.
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
“Any detention of children for administrative rather than criminal purposes causes unnecessary harm and further blights already disturbed young lives. Such practices reflect badly on all of us.”
”We have the power to protect these children. We have the power to be kind. It is our duty to use our power properly, to care for these children and to support them rather than locking them up.”
- David Almond, twice winner of the Whitbread Children's Book Award, with Skellig and The Fire-Eaters. www.davidalmond.com
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
"[the Committee’s visit to Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre] has enabled us to lift a stone and find a pretty horrible picture underneath. This is the gap between policy and practice."
”A woman I knew, a Quaker, once said to me, "I'm not sure of anything, except this: If you see someone about to harm a child, you must act." If we saw a government minister about to strike a child and knock it down, every one of us would leap forward instinctively to grab his arm. What is being done in our name in locking up these poor innocents is worse than a blow from a grown man's hand - it can do life-long damage. Three cheers for everyone involved in this campaign. I'm glad to add my name to the list which I hope will grow and grow.”
- Lynne Reid Banks, author, The Indian in the Cupboard www.lynnereidbanks.com.
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
“Overall, this is a deeply depressing report. Provision across a number of areas at Tinsley House had deteriorated since our last visit. In particular, the arrangements for children and single women were now wholly unacceptable and required urgent action by G4S and UKBA.”
”When will we understand that there is no such thing as 'their' children. All children are our children, so when we give our consent to the abuse and imprisonment of one child, in effect, we give our consent to the imprisonment and abuse of any child. STOP DETENTION NOW.”
- Gwen Grant www.gwengrant.co.uk
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
”It is beyond belief that this Labour government is locking up children of any kind. That these children are highly vulnerable people in some kind of transit situation, almost certainly fleeing from terrible conditions, often in parts of the world where this very same Labour government has caused death, destruction and mayhem, utterly sickens me.
I call on every single person who hears of what's going on with the detention of asylum-seeking children to write, petition and demonstrate against it. My suspicions are that the motive behind such inhuman treatment are crude electoral ones, in which this government is allowing itself to be driven by anti-asylum-seeking press barons and the British National Party.
Make no mistake about it, the UK has obligations towards asylum seekers and it has obligations towards children. At present, it looks very much as if we're reneging on those obligations. This is to their great shame and we must do all we can to break the legislation, custom and practice that is allowing them to carry on in this way."
- Michael Rosen, former Children's Laureate www.michaelrosen.co.uk
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
"There is no more irrevocable evil than that of adults being cruel to children. Imprisoned children become terrified of the whole grown-up world and their hearts are broken forever. I want to be no part of an adult society that considers the detention of innocent children to be a necessary evil. Evil, while it may often be cheap and convenient, is never necessary. Evil is precisely the stuff we would not do to our own kids. Every reasonable adult must surely see the issue of child detention in that light, and rise to the simple moral challenge being made by the campaign to End Child Detention Now."
- Chris Cleave, author The Other Hand. www.chriscleave.com
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
”It's pretty much impossible to believe that a country that insists on protecting the rights of its own children while locking up those who arrive from war torn shores with little but hope in their stomachs, is allowed to get away with such actions. Well, not on our watch, you won't.”
- Anna Perera, author Guantanamo Boy, nominated for Costa 2009
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
”The shocking and brutal act of locking up innocent children is unacceptable. To take the poor, frightened and needy and to criminalise them, to subject them to such terror, is nothing short of child abuse. Yet where are the protests? Is the UK really willing to excuse this abuse simply because it happens to the children of 'outsiders'? Well, not in my name. Child detention is a shameful and inhuman policy, accepted only in the worst of illiberal regimes. It is NOT acceptable in the UK and must stop now.”
- Bali Rai, author City of Ghosts www.balirai.co.uk
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
”To persecute a child who flees persecution; to imprison a child who flees imprisonment; to abuse a child who flees abuse: these are acts of barbarism, not of civilisation. We should be ashamed to place our own desire for security above a child's need for compassion.”
John Dougherty, author, poet songwriter. www.visitingauthor.com/Home.html
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
”A society is judged by the way that it treats its most vulnerable members. Children are certainly among the most vulnerable, so why are they being locked up, treated like criminals and traumatised? What has happened to Britain's sense of justice and compassion for the underdog? As mature and humane people, let us all work to protect the vulnerable.”
Debjani Chatterjee MBE, award-winning poet and children's author.
www.mysite.freeserve.com/DebjaniChatterjee.
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
”How shocking it is to know that children are subjected to such indifference and injustice. It's deeply shaming and it must stop.”
- Jamila Gavin, author, Coram Boy, Whitbread Children's Book of the Year, 2000.
www.jamilagavin.co.uk
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
”We are one of the world's richest countries, we should treat ALL children with kindness. To do otherwise is inhuman.”
Catherine Johnson, novelist and screenwriter. www.catherinejohnson.co.uk
With thanks to citizens campaign End Child Detention Now
About the campaign
OutCry! is the campaign to end immigration detention of children. Find out more about the campaign here.
Who we are
OutCry! is a partnership between Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) and The Children's Society, funded by The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
OutCry! news & events
Have a look at recent OutCry! events, press releases, articles in the media, research publications and newsletters.
Contact OutCry!
On this page you'll find contact details for OutCry!, including for general enquiries, for support or referrals, and for media enquiries.
