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Refugee Action responds to child detention reports

Monday October 17th 2011

In response to today’s reports that almost 700 children have been detained at ports and airports between May and August this year, Dave Garratt, Chief Executive at Refugee Action, said:

“We are shocked by the high numbers of children that have been detained, with more than a quarter of those children travelling alone.

“We welcomed the government’s announcement that it was committed to ending child detention for immigration purposes by May this year, which makes this figure all the more shocking. Their publication also follows the Independent Monitoring Board’s recent description of some of the detention facilities at Heathrow Airport as ‘degrading’.

“We agree with the Children’s Society, which obtained the figures through the Freedom of Information Act, that the Home Office should launch an enquiry into the reasons why so many children have been detained on entry to the UK and the length of that detention.”

ENDS

Refugee Action is an independent, national charity working to enable refugees to build new lives. We provide practical advice and assistance for newly arrived asylum seekers and long-term commitment to their settlement through community development work, and received 30,000 visits from asylum seekers last year. As one of the country's leading agencies in the field, Refugee Action has 30 years' experience in pioneering innovative work in partnership with refugees.