Government has 'failed' asylum seekers

Lord Hylton writes for ePolitix.com ahead of today's short debate on people detained under immigration and asylum law. Skip related content

I start from the proposition that it is wrong to lock up parents and children who have committed no crimes in this country.

To do so, when they have little or no legal advice, and for periods of unknown length, is doubly bad.

Those affected are mainly asylum applicants, who have not succeeded in being recognised as refugees.

They also include people who have overstayed their leave to remain. All of them may already have been here for years, and have married here and produced children.

All may have very real fears of what may happen to them if they are removed to their countries of origin, whatever the government may say about Memoranda of Understanding.

Political persecution, tribal or personal vendettas, and sexual and gender crime persist in all too many countries.

In the second quarter of this year, 235 children were detained during children and parents passing through the detention centres.

In 2005 some 7,000 persons passed through Yarlswood alone.

The detention of children is contrary to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This fact compels the government to derogate from the Convention, which is a great shame on the 20th anniversary of the Convention, which we helped to draft.

An advice and casework approach would be vastly cheaper than the present expensive detention system. It would not make families more likely to abscond, because they wish to remain in contact with essential services, including health and education.

The government must appoint an independent reviewer, to look at the need for continued detention in individual cases.

Successive governments have failed over many years to balance their duty to protect vulnerable people, with the need for asylum and immigration control.

Detention of parents and children should be ended and the total of detainees should be much reduced. Better casework would increase the numbers who take voluntary repatriation or emigration.