By Clare Sambrook
Ask Boy A what he is scared of and he says dogs, strangers and policemen. He is scared to go outside and play with friends. At night he wets his bed. He cannot sleep without his mother. He is nine years old. [p59-60]
At their autumn conference this weekend [18 to 22nd SEPT] Liberal Democrats wanting to rescue their end child detention pledge from Home Office sabotage will find ammunition in a chilling new report from Medical Justice.
Boy A is one of 141 children in the report that takes its title — ‘State Sponsored Cruelty’ — from Nick Clegg’s pre-election definition of the detention policy. [p5] Almost half the children were born in Britain, and 62 per cent of all of them were released from detention back into the UK, raising the question, why on earth were they locked up in the first place? Continue reading “The Liberal Democrats must fight to salvage their promise to end the detention of children for immigration purposes”