The Arrest and Detention of Children Subject to Immigration Control

What's the issue here? Each year, the UK detains 2,000 children and young people, along with their families, who are "subject to immigration control". This means that the families are being removed from the UK, generally because they are failed asylum seekers. Their detention is therefore on administrative rather than criminal grounds. England's children's commissioner Sir Al Aynsley-Green thinks this is wrong because it is never in the best interests of the child.

Sounds plausible at the very least. What is the evidence? For his report, The Arrest and Detention of Children Subject to Immigration Control, the commissioner used his powers to visit Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire, which is the main detention centre for those awaiting removal from the UK. He spoke to children and families and examined secondary data such as medical records and the minutes from Yarl's Wood Children's Forum meetings. Many of those he and his team met had been in the UK for more than five years, some for up to 11. The children may have been born here and to that degree are victims of the backlog in dealing with asylum cases.