An evaluative report on the Millbank Alternative to Detention Pilot

Report from: Children’s Society + BID +Princess of Wales memorial Fund

Full report: http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/resources/documents/media/17148_full.pdf

Conclusion
The Millbank Pilot was a missed opportunity to find out which factors help and hinder sustainable solutions for families at the end of the asylum process. The aims should have been clear at the outset and the evaluation method fully worked out.
The design of the project was flawed. In particular two things stand out.

The first is the element of coercion for families taking part. It has been demonstrated that coercion does not work when dealing with families in crisis by national and international schemes established to work with families refused asylum.

The second major flaw was the confusion about referrals, which led to inappropriate referrals, and appeared to make the job of those running the pilot virtually impossible Continue reading “An evaluative report on the Millbank Alternative to Detention Pilot”

February 12, 2010

Mojirola Daniels – Speaks Out Full summary of the treatment that I received at Yarl’s wood center

I am one of the ladies on hunger strike at Yarl’s wood center. On Monday 8th February 2010 around 11 45am GMT time, some group of women stood at the center of a hall in the center. We were protesting about the condition at the center and the length of time we spend in here. An officer approached the group and informed us that an immigration official would like to see us all to discuss the issues that we have raised.

The officer told us to follow him down the corridor to the immigration office. We proceed down to the end of the corridor. When we got to the very end, the officer asked that we should go inside the office 4 ladies at a time. They allowed 4 women to enter and told us that they will let 4 more in when those 4 inside gets out. One of the manager of the center ( a lady manager called Viv Moore) came from the long corridor and asked us if we wanted to go back to our rooms. We told her that we were waiting to see the immigration. She said we are just wasting our time and that nothing is going to be achieved from our protest. She then asked the officers in the room to come with her and as soon as they got to the door, the last officer looked the door on us. They all stayed outside watching us through the door window. Continue reading

February 12, 2010

53.8% of detained children, returned to the community

In the year April 2008 to March 2009, 1,116 children entered detention and slightly more departed it-clearly some cases would have overlapped from previous year. Some 539 of those children, slightly fewer than half, were removed, and 629 were released. [Hansard 10 Feb 2010 : Column 1027]

Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre

5.54 pm

Alistair Burt (North-East Bedfordshire) (Con): Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to raise matters relating to Yarl’s Wood detention and removal centre. As I am sure the House is aware, it is the largest immigration detention centre for women and children in the United Kingdom and is located in my constituency. Continue reading “53.8% of detained children, returned to the community”

February 11, 2010

EDM 811 – CHILDREN IN IMMIGRATION REMOVAL CENTRES

Ask your MP to sign Early Day Motion 811

05.02.2010

Abbott, Diane http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=40411&SESSION=903

That this House notes the £100,000 settlement paid by the Home Office to Carmen Quiroga and her children for their false imprisonment in Oakington Detention Centre for 42 days; is concerned about the increasing length of time families are detained for, with some being detained for over 120 days; is further concerned over the psychological damage that may occur in children following any period of detention; notes that Oakington was initially meant to be used as a short-term measure and closed in 2006, yet has been in operation for 10 years; recognises Chief Prison Inspector Anne Owers’ report on detention centres condemning the use of child imprisonment; and urges the Government to extend the provisions of the relevant children’s legislation to include children in detention.

Abbott, Diane

Women held after immigration centre protest

Four women have been detained by police after a group of mothers at an immigration removal centre protested at being separated from their children.

Officers were called to the Yarl’s Wood centre in Bedfordshire yesterday, where more than 80 women were said to be on hunger strike in protest against their detention and conditions.

Bedfordshire Police detained four women for offences under the Immigration Act last night following the disturbance, they said today.

They were taken to Greyfriars Police Station in Bedford at about 7.30pm and will be handed over to the UK Border Agency later today.

They have not been arrested or charged with any criminal offences, a spokeswoman said. Continue reading “Women held after immigration centre protest”

February 9, 2010

Yarl’s Wood women on hunger strike ‘locked up and denied treatment’

As their protest runs into a fourth day, some are said to be fainting or injured. But the Home Office denies wrongdoing

A controversial immigration removal centre was reported to be in a state of chaos today, as at least 50 women entered the fourth day of a hunger strike, with several fainting in corridors and almost 20 locked outdoors wearing few clothes.

Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire, which houses 405 women and children, was in lockdown, leaving women in communal spaces without food, water or toilet facilities.

Several women who tried to escape through a window were then locked outside, according to one detainee, including one whose finger was almost severed as she escaped but who had not received medical treatment. Continue reading “Yarl’s Wood women on hunger strike ‘locked up and denied treatment’”

February 5, 2010

Detention should be used only if less intrusive measures have been tried and found insufficient.

Asylum seekers should not be detained solely on the basis of lodging a claim for asylum, nor for their illegal entry or presence in the country where they lodge a claim for asylum

Detention should be used only if less intrusive measures have been tried and found insufficient.

New Council of Europe resolution on the detention of migrants in Europe
1 February 2010 — The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution on the detention of asylum seekers and irregular migrants in Europe. The resolution, adopted on 28 January, states in no unclear terms that detention results from political decisions that represent a “hardening attitude towards irregular migrants and asylum seekers”. Continue reading “Detention should be used only if less intrusive measures have been tried and found insufficient.”

February 4, 2010

Border staff humiliate and trick asylum seekers ? whistleblower

Louise Perrett says she was advised at the Border Agency office in Cardiff to refuse difficult asylum claims

Diane Taylor and Hugh Muir
Wednesday February 3 2010
The Guardian

http://www.guardian .co.uk/uk/ 2010/feb/ 02/border- staff-asylum- seekers-whistleb lower

Claims that asylum seekers are mistreated, tricked and humiliated by staff working for the UK Border Agency are to be investigated in parliament.

The home affairs select committee chairman, Keith Vaz, has called for an investigation following allegations that officials at one of the government’s major centres for processing asylum seekers’ claims express fiercely anti-immigration views and take pride in refusing applications. Continue reading “Border staff humiliate and trick asylum seekers ? whistleblower”

February 4, 2010

THE DETENTION OF CHILDREN A statement from the Rt Revd John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, Chair of the Urban Bishops Panel.

On 2nd February the Church celebrates the value and potential of a child’s life as we remember the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.

In the UK the value and potential of many children is denied through the continued practice of detaining children in immigration detention centres. Each year over 2000 children are detained in prison-like conditions. No limit is set to the time in which children may be detained.

As Bishop of Ripon and Leeds I am aware of the impact of removal and detention on those who experience it as well as those left behind, in our schools, communities and congregations. I welcome the initiative of the End Child Detention Now Campaign.

Children are detained through no fault of their own. They are often removed from familiar settings in sudden and alarming circumstances leaving behind friends, toys and personal possessions. Detention is a distressing experience. Child detainees experience insomnia, bed wetting, weight loss, speech regression, depression, and are known to self-harm. The children of asylum seekers are a vulnerable group, made more so by this policy which has no regard for their mental health. The experience of detention often evokes the trauma they have experience when flees their country of origin. Continue reading “THE DETENTION OF CHILDREN A statement from the Rt Revd John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, Chair of the Urban Bishops Panel.”

February 4, 2010

Asylum: Mothers’ & Children’s Right to Family Reunion, online petition

To: UK Government

• Many people seeking asylum in the UK are mothers fleeing war, persecution, rape and other torture.

• To protect themselves and their children, mothers are often forced to leave their children behind –usually they don’t know where they are going or how they will survive.

• Mothers may lose contact with children back home or hear of them unprotected and suffering, and can do little to prevent it.

• It can take many years for an asylum claim to be settled; meanwhile: children suffer the torture of being deprived of their mother’s love and care, left destitute, at risk of sexual and other violence; mothers are treated as single people and the pain of separation and of trying to be a carer long distance is invisible and unrecognised.

• When mothers win the right to stay, most are not automatically granted the right of family reunion. If children turn 18 while their mother’s application is being considered they lose the right to join their mother.

* We are a mothers’ campaign, so we speak particularly of mothers, the primary carers in every society, but we know that the problems and heartbreak we describe are often true of fathers, grandparents & other carers. Continue reading “Asylum: Mothers’ & Children’s Right to Family Reunion, online petition”