Family returns panel says Border Agency becoming ‘more humane'

The government’s landmark pledge to end child detention came into effect 12 months ago and a new family returns process was ushered in.

One year on, Chris Spencer, chair of the Independent Family Returns Panel, which monitors how the UK Border Agency (UKBA) operates the returns process, believes the new set-up is improving the welfare of children being removed from the UK.

The panel has no power to prevent a family being removed, but does have the ability to oppose the process of return if it is not in the child’s best interest.

The panel considered the cases of 68 families earmarked for an “ensured return” – the final stage of the returns process – during 2011. Of these, around half have been removed, with the remaining cases subject to hold-ups as a result of legal battles.

The panel has not yet referred any of its cases to immigration minister Damian Green. This indicates, Spencer says, a willingness on the part of the Border Agency to adopt the panel’s suggestions on working with families.

“We now have a much more humane process,” he says. “If you compare the systems we have now compared to 18 months ago, we have made a difference to all kinds of practice and policies within the UKBA. But it is a very large organisation, so the progress we have made has been patchy.”

One area where headway is being made, according to Spencer, is the contentious issue of so-called dawn raids, whereby officers swoop on a family due to be removed in the early hours.

“We have scrutinised it very closely and asked whether early mornings have been absolutely necessary in one or two cases,” he says. “You always have to balance that against the officer’s risk assessment – you may be entering an area that is quite volatile and anyone in uniform is a target. We are now at the stage where officers are asking themselves before they present plans to the panel, ‘is it really necessary to go that early?’”

Under consideration
Other practices under consideration include the attire worn by officers when they go to detain families. “There has been quite a lot of dialogue about whether stab vests are necessary where a low-risk has been assessed,” Spencer says. “Social workers have been going into the homes of families for a long time without stab vests.”

The panel is also entering into discussions over whether the UKBA’s existing policy of non-intervention with children, not being able to guide them or restrain them, should be maintained. “If you don’t have a physical management policy, a single child refusing to step into an aircraft can lead to removal being cancelled and that is in nobody’s interests,” Spencer says.

But despite apparent progress, campaigners are calling for more extensive change. A total of 133 children were detained under Immigration Act powers between May 2011 and March this year.

The majority of these are held at the “family-friendly” short-term holding facility, called Cedars. But Syd Bolton, children’s rights lawyer at the Coram Children’s Legal Centre, says this still represents detention.

“Children and their families continue to be detained by any other name, while the system of early morning arrests, long distance escorting and separations remains,” he says.

Judith Dennis, policy manager at the Refugee Council, adds: “Our biggest concern is that the panel is completely reliant on information given to it by the UKBA. Other agencies working with families should be able to input their views.”