Detention centres are no place for school kids

Unofficial statistics reveal that over 1300 child migrants were held in immigration centres across the UK over the past 15 months. The statistics were in a letter from the UK immigration minister Phil Woolas to the Scottish National Party’s Pete Wishart.

The news has shocked many commentators on UK immigration, and has ignited debate on whether under 16’s should be treated this way, in what is generally considered a tolerate country for immigration.

The US policy on illegal immigrants is similar in that they are held in detention centres before being deported, as you would expect there are no official statistics for under-16’s held in these centres.

This being the case, last month Barack Obama announced plans to overhaul US policy on immigration centres in the country, saying that detainees will no longer be held like prisoners but instead in converted hospitals and old hotels that will act more like check-in points than prisons, allowing detainees to continue their lives until their case is heard.

While this is a step in the right direction for a country that has typically been accused of poor policy on immigration, the UK has always been thought as more of a liberal country in regards to immigration.

The case of Ibrahim Ssentongo, four, was publicised this week. The youngster from  East Ham, London, has been resettling to life with his family after a traumatic time in the Yarls Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire. Seven months since he was locked up the trauma of the 51 days he was away for are very much at the front of his mind

Since being released from Yarls Wood, Ibrahim, has become quieter, more within himself, he is now prone to tears. Ibrahim was born in the UK, yet now finds every day trips frightening and often refuses to walk down the street.

Stephen Ssentongo, Ibrahim’s father, who is from Uganda says:

“When he sees people in uniforms of white shirts and black trousers, like bus drivers or security guards in shopping centres, he thinks they are guards from detention. He wants to hold your hand or to stand in front of you, so that you will hold him. He is scared.”

This story and hundreds like him surely have no place in the UK and are more like tales from a Dickensian era than the 21^st century. Now that these have come to light it surely now lies with the government to address the issue of detention centres for under-16’s?