Scottish MPs Demand End to Child Detention

On 16th April, a delegation from the Scottish Parliament's Cross Party Group on Refugees and Asylum Seekers, consisting of MSPs Dennis Canavan, Shona Robison, and Tommy Sheridan, and representatives from the Scottish Churches, Amnesty International, and the Scottish Refugee Council, visited Dungavel Removal Centre, near Strathaven.

The Group were asked to visit Dungavel following concerns raised about the detention of families; the length of time of detention and highly publicised concerns about conditions at the centre and the way detainees were being treated.

The Cross Party Group had already stated its opposition to detaining people who had committed no crime. They were also concerned that detainees could be held with no time limit on their detention.

At the end of the visit the Cross Party Group reaffirmed their opposition to Removal Centres and were even more strongly of the view that families with children should not be detained

Extracts from the report of the visit

There is limited provision of education for children but this is no substitute for a normal school environment. Children must pass through locked doors to get outside and currently there is no play area even when they do get outside. We can see no justification for the detention of children. The risk of absconding does not outweigh the damage done to children being denied their freedom.

The lack of accountability for service provision by Premier must be addressed.

The length of time asylum seekers are detained is of concern. Dungavel is supposed to be a removal centre, designed for a short-term period of detention. Some people have been detained for long periods, in one case for 18 months, in detention centres throughout the UK. This can only have a detrimental impact on the mental health of detainees.

We are concerned that there may be detainees who are being held in Dungavel without good grounds, given so many we spoke to were not at the end of the asylum appeal process, and many told us they had been living in the community, some for years, without absconding.

The lack of information available about detainees is cause for concern.

There is a lack of accessible general information on facilities and services within Dungavel and again a more proactive stance must be taken to ensure detainees are made aware of the available facilities and services. Detainees have difficulty in accessing information relating to their asylum application, yet this is information that both the Home Office staff at Dungavel and the Doctor clearly, by their own admission, have.

Detainees are being transported to and from Dungavel without sufficient information telling them where they are going. This can be a terrifying ordeal.

A copy of the report can be obtained from NCADC.