Parliament update: immigration, asylum, detention, children

• Detention of children – government still committed?
• Detaining families – separating children from parents
• Deporting children – force and restraint
• Asylum statistics – country of origin
• Flight cost statistics – flight cancellation fees
• Deportation statistics – deporting offenders
• Detention cost statistics – average £110 a day
• Scotland – ‘dawn raids’ on families
• Scotland – asylum and refugee support funding

Immigration: Detention of Children

House of Lords debates, 11 October 2010, 2:44 pm

Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat)
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will end child detention in immigration cases.

Baroness Neville-Jones (Minister of State (Security), Home Office; Conservative)
My Lords, I am unable to provide a date for the ending of detention of children for immigration purposes but we remain determined to end this practice as soon as possible.

Working with NGOs, we are designing and testing alternative arrangements to protect children’s welfare while ensuring the return of families who have no right to be here. We are making significant progress.

Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat)
I am grateful to the Minister for that Answer. Will she make available in the Library every week a list of the numbers of detained children, where they are detained and their ages, so that we can end this practice and monitor it if a list is available for us to refer to? Will she accompany three or four of us to Yarl’s Wood so that we can see the situation there for ourselves?

Baroness Neville-Jones (Minister of State (Security), Home Office; Conservative)
My Lords, it is perfectly reasonable to make these arrangements. We will certainly be glad to arrange a visit to Yarl’s Wood. The number of children in detention is either zero or two. I cannot give an exact figure as it depends on whether the two children in a family who knowingly entered the country illegally yesterday are still in detention; they may have been briefly. However, the numbers are very low.

Lord Soley (Labour)
Is it not time for both parties in the Government to admit that they made promises to the electorate on this emotive issue which they cannot keep because, if they do, they will end up taking children into care or forcefully separating them from their parents? That admission from the Government is long overdue. We all want to minimise this practice to the absolute smallest limit, but let us be realistic and not make promises which we cannot keep, as the Government have done too often on matters such as this.

Baroness Neville-Jones (Minister of State (Security), Home Office; Conservative)
My Lords, I do not accept that. We are going to keep this promise. We are trying to go upstream of the previous procedures for requiring families to leave by encouraging voluntary return. We are engaged in that pilot with the help of NGOs. We will, and must, honour an undertaking that we have given.

Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat)
My Lords, bearing in mind that the Royal College of Paediatrics and others have said that significant harm is caused to children detained for immigration control purposes, why has this process not been brought to an end? Will the noble Baroness give a date when the facilities at Yarl’s Wood and other places of detention are to be dismantled so that such detentions cannot happen again?

Baroness Neville-Jones (Minister of State (Security), Home Office; Conservative)
My Lords, I wish I could give a date. We cannot do that because, as things stand, we are taking seriously the whole business of how we bring about a situation whereby it is no longer necessary to detain children. It requires time to get the right procedures in place and, if I may put it this way, it is an earnest of our seriousness that we are going into considerable detail to get the right procedures.

The Earl of Listowel (Crossbench)
Will the Minister consider extending from two weeks to three months the window for families to consider voluntary returns? Is she aware that in Sweden in 2008, 82 per cent of families chose to take the voluntary return route?

Baroness Neville-Jones (Minister of State (Security), Home Office; Conservative)
My Lords, I am aware that this figure of a fortnight has got around to being perceived as some sort of deadline, whereas a fortnight is the absolute minimum period that the families are given to consider voluntary return. I do not want to set a timetable for the other end. We would obviously like to achieve a high rate of voluntary return which would take place as soon as was possible and at the least cost to the taxpayer.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour)
But, my Lords, the noble Baroness has not answered my noble friend. The coalition agreement states that the Government will end the detention of children for immigration purposes. Her honourable friend Damian Green said on 6 September in the other place that the policy was to minimise the detention of children. Why the change in policy?

Baroness Neville-Jones (Minister of State (Security), Home Office; Conservative)
My Lords, we intend to end the detention of children for immigration purposes.

Baroness Howe of Idlicote (Crossbench)
My Lords, if, in fact, children of school age and their families are still being detained together, will the Minister assure the House that education in outside schooling will be provided?

Baroness Neville-Jones (Minister of State (Security), Home Office; Conservative)
The emphasis of our policy is obviously on keeping families together. I trust that we will not be in a situation in which children are detained for any length of period at all; but certainly if they were, education would be a very important factor.

Lord Dholakia (Liberal Democrat)
My Lords, has the Minister taken a view on whether families should be deported to countries such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan and Zimbabwe, and particularly on the impact, which could be considerable on those being deported, of sending families with children back to those countries?

Baroness Neville-Jones (Minister of State (Security), Home Office; Conservative)
My Lords, if there are security factors in place, those of course introduce elements which are not necessarily present in all other cases.

Lord Rooker (Labour)
Can the Minister confirm that Yarl’s Wood, which was opened on my watch as a Home Office Minister, remains a removal centre and not a detention centre? As she will find out, if people are reluctant to go and they have children, it is not possible to organise removals economically and humanely by knocking on their doors; nor, if one wants to keep the family together, is it possible to do so other than by the family spending a minimum short period in a removal centre. That is not detention in the normal use of the word.

Baroness Neville-Jones (Minister of State (Security), Home Office; Conservative)
The noble Lord points to some of the difficulties that arise. In our view, it is certainly not humane to knock on people’s doors and require them to go absolutely immediately to a train or plane. Indeed, removal to a centre such as Yarl’s Wood, which has facilities, is sometimes the right procedure. The situation varies from case to case but we entirely accept that the procedure to be followed should be humane and in the interests of the family, and the children in particular.

Baroness Williams of Crosby (Liberal Democrat)
My Lords, is it possible to persuade the border agency not immediately to deport children, often by breaking into their homes in the early hours of the morning, but perhaps, as was suggested just now, to give the family a little more time to consider its position and return to the country from which it comes so that the children can be brought round to understanding what is going on? There is a great deal of evidence from the Royal College of Psychiatrists and others to show the huge effect on young children of suddenly being forced out of their homes in the middle of the night and compelled to go to a totally strange environment.

Baroness Neville-Jones (Minister of State (Security), Home Office; Conservative)
My Lords, I entirely take that point. The Government are trying to learn these lessons, and we are piloting this scheme precisely by going down the road of giving families more time and more options, particularly for voluntary departure. The scheme is absolutely in the spirit of the point mentioned by the noble Baroness.

Detention Centres: Children – ending detention

Home Department
Written answers and statements, 11 October 2010

Alan Johnson (Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to page 21 of the Coalition Agreement, what steps she plans to take to end the detention of children for immigration purposes.

Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 11 October 2010, c191W)

Damian Green (Minister of State (Immigration), Home Office; Ashford, Conservative)
holding answer 14 September 2010

The Government are committed to ending the detention of children for immigration purposes. Our aim is to achieve this in a way which promotes the welfare of children while ensuring the return of families who have no right to be in the UK. Significant progress has been made and we are now piloting new approaches. We are also continuing to work on alternative ways of securing the removal of those families who refuse to comply with our new approach.

Detention Centres: Parents – separated from children for detention purposes

Home Department
Written answers and statements, 11 October 2010

William Bain (Glasgow North East, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she plans to take to ensure that parents in immigration detention are not separated from their children.

Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 11 October 2010, c191W)

Damian Green (Minister of State (Immigration), Home Office; Ashford, Conservative)
The UK Border Agency has a policy of not separating children from both parents, or from one in the case of a single-parent family, for immigration purposes other than in exceptional cases.

For example, there may be circumstances where a prisoner, who is also a parent, is released from prison and a decision is made to maintain their detention under immigration powers in order to effect their deportation. Such assessments are made on a case by case basis taking into account public and child protection concerns.

However, family separations may occur for other reasons, such as for child protection purposes (which would be a matter for local authority children’s services) or where the parent has chosen to split the family by deliberately hiding the whereabouts of their children. Where children are missing the UK Border Agency will work with other statutory agencies, such as the police and local authorities, to try to locate the children and reunite them with their parent.

Deportation: Children – force and restraint

Home Department
Written answers and statements, 11 October 2010

Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole, Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 6 September 2010, Official Report, column 44W, on deportation: children, which holds and techniques have been used on children by (a) staff in immigration detention centres and (b) UK Border Agency escort providers since January 2009.

Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 11 October 2010, c190W)

Damian Green (Minister of State (Immigration), Home Office; Ashford, Conservative)
Further to my answer of 6 September 2010, officers are required to complete a report for any occasion where a detainee is restrained which must be passed to the relevant UK Border Agency contract monitor. The report requires officers to set out the circumstances of the situation and to justify why restraint was necessary. It does not, however, require them to stipulate the exact holds and techniques used and the information sought is therefore not recorded.

Asylum – statistics, country of origin

Home Department
Written answers and statements, 11 October 2010

David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people from which countries have claimed asylum in the United Kingdom in the last five years.

Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 11 October 2010, c179W)

Damian Green (Minister of State (Immigration), Home Office; Ashford, Conservative)
The accompanying table shows the number of asylum applications received in the United Kingdom by principal applicants, by country of nationality in the last five years. The figures for 2009 are provisional.

Information on asylum is published annually and quarterly. Annual figures on principal asylum applications, by nationality, for the years 2000-09 are available in Table 2a of the supplementary tables that accompany the Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom, 2009 bulletin. Latest quarterly figures on principal applications are also available in Table 2a for Quarter two 2010 that accompany the Control of Immigration: Quarterly Statistical Summary, April to June 2010.

Both bulletins are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate web site

Asylum: Deportation – flight cancellation fees

Home Department
Written answers and statements, 11 October 2010

Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire, Scottish National Party)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 6 September 2010, Official Report, column 35W, on asylum: deportation, how much the UK Border Agency has spent on cancellation fees in respect of (a) scheduled and (b) chartered flights in the last 12 months.

Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 11 October 2010, c180W)

Damian Green (Minister of State (Immigration), Home Office; Ashford, Conservative)
The amount spent on cancellation fees for removals using scheduled flights from the United Kingdom (UK) in the last 12 months (commencing from l September 2009 until 31 August 2010) is not readily available. Since May our service providers have been contractually obliged to produce management information on cancellation costs. As such we are able to provide costs from May 10 to August 10 (see table). However to calculate the amount spent on cancellation fees for removals from the United Kingdom using scheduled flights prior to May 10 would require detailed analysis of management information captured and this could be done only at disproportionate cost.

UKBA also spent £291,826.00 on cancellation fees as part of our contractual obligations for cancelled charter flights.

Deportation: Offenders

Home Department
Written answers and statements, 11 October 2010

Philip Davies (Shipley, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign national prisoners (a) were deported in 2009 and (b) have been deported in 2010 to date.

Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 11 October 2010, c190W)

Damian Green (Minister of State (Immigration), Home Office; Ashford, Conservative)
The UK Border Agency has published statistics that show:

(a) 5,530 foreign national prisoners were deported or removed from the UK in 2009.

(b) 1,225 foreign national prisoners were deported or removed in quarter 1 for 2010 and 1,200 in quarter 2 for 2010.

These figures have been extracted from the ‘Control of Immigration: UK Statistics’ reports for 2009 and 2010

Illegal Immigrants – offenders and deportation

Home Department
Written answers and statements, 11 October 2010

Priti Patel (Witham, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many illegal immigrants to the UK who have been convicted of offences related to unlawful entry to the UK in the last three years have not been deported from the UK; and if she will make a statement.

Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 11 October 2010, c198W)

Damian Green (Minister of State (Immigration), Home Office; Ashford, Conservative)
holding answer 16 September 2010

Between January 2007 and December 2009, 24,300 illegal entrants were detected by Border Force officers at the UK border.

Of the 24,300 illegal entrants detected, 23,436 were removed or deported. A detailed annual breakdown is provided in the following table:

Of those illegal entrants detected by UK Border Agency officers at the UK border who are not removed or deported, a number will have been granted asylum or another form of discretionary leave.

The information used to answer this question has been taken from a live database and is therefore subject to change. Removals and voluntary departures recorded on the system are as at the dates on which the data extracts are taken. Figures may change due to data cleansing and data matching exercises that may take place after extracts are taken.

Illegal Immigrants: Public Expenditure and detention

Home Department
Written answers and statements, 11 October 2010

Priti Patel (Witham, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average cost to the public purse was of one day’s detention of an illegal immigrant in the latest period for which figures are available; how many such immigrants had been detained for (a) up to three months, (b) up to six months, (c) up to 12 months and (d) 12 months and over on the latest date for which figures are available; and if she will make a statement.

Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 11 October 2010, c198W)

Damian Green (Minister of State (Immigration), Home Office; Ashford, Conservative)
holding answer 16 September 2010

We would prefer that people with no basis of stay left the UK voluntarily.

Detention is, however, an essential part of our ability to enforce an effective immigration control. It is generally used where we need to establish a person’s nationality or identity, to consider applications for asylum from those claims which can be concluded quickly, to remove those with no basis of stay who have either failed or refused to leave the UK, or to hold those committed of serious offences pending their deportation.

The average daily cost of detaining a person in an immigration removal centre (IRC) is £110.

The UK Border Agency seeks to keep length of detention to the minimum period although where it does become prolonged, it is invariably because the detainee is failing to co-operate with the removal process, including providing incomplete or false information about their identity.

The latest published information on persons detained solely under Immigration Act powers by length of detention are available in the table 3.11 of the Control of Immigration: Quarterly Statistical Summary, United Kingdom, April-June 2010 in the Library of the House and the Home Office’s Research, Development and Statistics website.

Asylum Seekers – Dawn Raids in Scotland

Scottish Parliament Written answers, 30 September 2010

Christina McKelvie (Scottish National Party) | Question S3W-36404
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied that dawn raids on asylum seeker families have ended.

Official Report source
Mentioned in tabled written questions on 21 Sep 2010.
After 9 days, Given a written answer on 30 Sep 2010.

Alex Neil (Scottish National Party)
This government has made very clear its opposition to dawn raids and to the enforced removal and detention of children. The Minister for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, wrote to Damian Green, the UK Government’s Minister for Immigration, on 9 September 2010 asking for urgent clarification of the UK Government position and urging him not to renege on the promise to end child detention. We will continue to pursue this issue with UK Government ministers until they deliver on this commitment.

Asylum Seekers – funding in Scotland

Scottish Parliament Written answers, 30 September 2010

Christina McKelvie (Scottish National Party) | Question S3W-36405
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will enhance the assistance that it gives to asylum seekers and, if so, how.

Official Report source
Mentioned in tabled written questions on 21 Sep 2010.
After 9 days, Given a written answer on 30 Sep 2010.

Alex Neil (Scottish National Party)
Asylum support (accommodation and cash support) for asylum seekers is a matter for the UK Border Agency. However, through the Race, Religion and Refugee Integration Funding Stream the Scottish Government has provided £5.6 million for the period 2008-11 to improve the lives of minority ethnic and faith communities in Scotland including refugees and asylum seekers, migrant workers and gypsies/travellers.

No decisions have been made regarding funding post 2011 which will be subject to the spending review.