Alternatives to Child Immigration Detention: What are the options for the Coalition government?
Article
We believe the government deserves credit for confirming that they will end this inhumane and ineffective policy, and for establishing a review into alternatives to the practice. However, ending child detention clearly raises significant challenges for the government which are proving difficult to overcome.
This briefing provides some background to the developments in this area, and sets out how two important principles can and should be put into practice by the government.
Those principles are:
- first, ending the detention of children must mean ending the detention of families.
- second, the government is entitled to remove families with children from the UK once they have exhausted their rights of appeal, and any change in policy must facilitate rather than frustrate return in these circumstances.
Recommendations in the briefing paper include:
- formalising the involvement of refugee and migrant-supporting organisations
- ensuring asylum seekers are aware of the possibility of return early in the asylum process
- the use of alternatives to detention, such as tagging and reporting, and
- ensuring the government is able to enforce returns.
Related items
Spring statement: A changed world calls for a changed course
If there are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen, the last few weeks feel seismic. The prime minister was right to say the world has changed. Donald Trump’s re-election in November has unleashed a wave…2030 and beyond: Great British Energy's role in the green transition
The UK government created Great British Energy to help deliver secure, clean and affordable electricity.Who is losing learning? Finding solutions to the school engagement crisis
An alarming number of children are missing out on the social and educational benefits of school.