Immigration: Detention of Children

Lord Roberts of Llandudno Excerpts

Monday 11th October 2010 Lords Chamber

Asked By

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will end child detention in immigration cases.

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Neville-Jones)]

My Lords, I am unable to provide a date for the ending of detention of children for immigration purposes but we remain determined to end this practice as soon as possible. Working with NGOs, we are designing and testing alternative arrangements to protect children’s welfare while ensuring the return of families who have no right to be here. We are making significant progress.

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno]

I am grateful to the Minister for that Answer. Will she make available in the Library every week a list of the numbers of detained children, where they are detained and their ages, so that we can end this practice and monitor it if a list is available for us to refer to? Will she accompany three or four of us to Yarl’s Wood so that we can see the situation there for ourselves?

[Baroness Neville-Jones]

My Lords, it is perfectly reasonable to make these arrangements. We will certainly be glad to arrange a visit to Yarl’s Wood. The number of children in detention is either zero or two. I cannot give an exact figure as it depends on whether the two children in a family who knowingly entered the country illegally yesterday are still in detention; they may have been briefly. However, the numbers are very low.

Afghanistan: Child Asylum Seekers

Lord Roberts of Llandudno Excerpts

Thursday 10th June 2010 Lords Chamber

Asked By

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proposals they have for the return of unaccompanied child asylum seekers to Afghanistan.

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Neville-Jones)]

My Lords, the House may be aware of press reports that have appeared on this issue in the past week, which may have misled. I assure the House straightaway that only unaccompanied children for whom satisfactory care and integration assistance can be provided will be returned. What is being proposed is part of that assistance. The UK is tendering for integration services for all forced-returned Afghans—that is, not just children. If that tender process identifies suitable provision for some Afghans in the 16 to 17 age bracket, then indeed it might be possible to return them. Children under that age will not be returned, but even in that age group that will depend on individual cases and the assistance that can be provided. We doubt that there will be big numbers.

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno]

I thank the Minister for that reply. I know that when we entered this coalition Government we thought that one of the great pledges was to stop the detention of children for immigration purposes and I hope that that will be implemented. However, this seems a backward step. Is the Minister convinced that we are keeping to the letter of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which says that every child—everyone of 18 and under—should be cared for in a very special way? This seems to be treating the most vulnerable children among us in a very harsh way.

[Baroness Neville-Jones]

My Lords, there is no question of detention, which does not arise in these cases. As to whether we are conforming to the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, I suggest that it is precisely in order to make assistance available to young people that we are instituting these arrangements and the tender is going out. This is not about buildings; it is about provision for reintegration into society and for other ways of helping these young people to find their parents and to get back to a normal life.