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The UK government detains more than 2,000 children, including babies, in immigration detention centres every year. Ask the Home Security Dept. to stop this insanity.
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The UK government currently detains more than 2,000 children, including babies, in immigration detention centres every year. That's equivalent to the number of pupils at a large inner-city secondary school.

These children have not committed any crime but are held behind locked doors and high barbed wire fences. Five years ago it was rare for families and children to be detained for immigration purposes. Now, members of the No Place for a Child coalition have documented detentions lasting anything from 7 to 268 days.

Detaining these children is wrong - regardless of the merits of a family’s asylum case.

Push the Home Secretary to stop detaining children now and to trial better alternatives.


  • Children can be held for long periods of time. One child was held for 268 days.
  • Children feel that they are being punished and do not understand why. Many are left traumatised by the experience with a negative impact on their health, well-being and education.
  • Detention can be particularly traumatic for families who have already fled from conflict and torture in their own country to seek safety in the UK.
  • The UK government’s use of detention for children and families is in contravention of international human rights standards.


    • Detention is like a cage, and I was like a small bird with no food in it. I wished I could fly…

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