UK immigration centre attracts new criticism
February 18 2010 by Liam Clifford
UK immigration detention centres have today aroused fresh criticism as a new report is published detailing child neglect at the Yarl’s Wood centre in Bedford, Hertfordshire.
The report by the Governments children's commissioner, Sir Al Aynsley Green, has cautioned that children are being held for too long and in some cases being neglected.
Government statistics show that more than 1,000 children are held at the centre every year, and on average being held for 2-weeks.
Mr Green has also urged the Government to review its welfare and protection procedures after they were shown to be inadequate; the report going into detail on the high-risk nature of both. A case the report highlights was a family detained for over 70-days, also another involving a healthcare practitioner who failed to diagnose a child's broken arm, the girl was not treated for 20 hours before eventually being taken to a hospital.
The Refugee Council’s Donna Covey, has spoken out about the findings insisting that, "This report is a welcome and timely reminder of the harm that is caused by detaining children.”
And that, "These are children we are talking about. It is unacceptable that they are detained at all."
UK immigration have defended the centre in Yarl’s Wood saying that the report consists of many factual inaccuracies.
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