News Insight: Detention pledge met with caution

The announcement that children will no longer be detained for immigration purposes has been warmly received by campaigners who have been pushing for such a move for years.

But as the dust settles following immigration minister Damian Green's announcement, the issue of how, or when, it will be achieved remains.

The scale of the issue is large, with Home Office statistics showing that 1,065 children entered detention in 2009. Green says he will lead a "wide-ranging review" of how the change will be implemented, setting out plans "in the coming months".

So what form could the plan take and what concerns linger?

Jill Rutter, head of policy and communications at Refugee and Migrant Justice, is worried about how long the review will take and the kind of alternative policy that could emerge. She fears removing the option of detention could lead to ill-considered attempts to fast-track deportation. "What we don't want is families scooped up in dawn raids and driven straight to the airport without notice of removal, and that is a risk that could come out of this policy commitment," she says.