Illegal Migration Bill: MPs back detention of unaccompanied children
Joe Lepper
Thursday, April 27, 2023
Children’s rights campaigners have criticised a decision by MPs to back the Illegal Migration Bill, which gives the government powers to detain unaccompanied asylum-seeking children for up to three days without a court order.
The bill has been backed by MPs by 289 votes to 230 as it cleared its final stages in the House of Commons this week.
It allows the detention of those arriving in the UK illegally, including children. They can then be removed to Rwanda or another country, when they reach 18, which would take legal precedence over a person’s right to claim asylum.
A potential Conservative MP rebellion to the bill was to take place, but has been defused after the government made several concessions, including around the detention of children.
But despite amendments, including around the length of time children may be detained without a court order, unaccompanied young refugees can still be locked up if they are awaiting removal from the UK to be with family abroad or if they are believed to be over 18.
The amended bill specifies that children “may not be kept in secure accommodation for a period of more than 72 hours without the authority of the court”.
However, with a court order they may be kept for up to three months and “a court may from time to time authorise that a child may be kept in secure accommodation for a further period not exceeding six months at any one time”.
Katherine Sacks-Jones, the chief executive of care charity Become said: “Today is a shameful day for our country when MPs vote on locking up unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking.”
Today is a shameful day for our country when MPs vote on locking up unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking. Let’s hope enough find empathy & compassion & make the right moral choice 💔
— Katharine Sacks-Jones (@KatharineSJ) April 26, 2023
Meanwhile, Children England chief executive Kathy Evans objects “to a single day of detention for any child, especially those arriving here alone” adding that “MPs thinking they’re being humane” to restrict detention to 72 hours “is just crazy”.
Voting against the Bill was Labour’s shadow minister for children and early years Helen Hayes, who described the legislation as “a shameful embarrassment to our country”.
Speaking in parliament this week as MPs debated the Bill, immigration minister Robert Jenrick acknowledged that Conservative politicians, including former children’s minister Tim Loughton, had raised concerns around “prolonged detention of children without the authority of a court”, which is why a time limit had been introduced.
He added: “It is our intention that, where there is no age dispute, children are not detained for any longer than is absolutely necessary."
Jenrick said that detention of children amid age disputes is necessary as half of those who undergo age assessments are “ultimately determined to be adults”.
“This is not a theoretical issue; it is one that we see every day unfortunately. Today, a very large number of young adults do pose as children,” he said.
Children’s commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza wants assurances from government that age assessments are “carried out sensitively and appropriately, by trained professionals”, adding “where age is disputed, they should be treated first and foremost as a vulnerable child, with the care and support they require from the local authority while this is resolved”.
Also raising concerns around the proposed treatment of children in the bill is Save the Children UK, which said child refugees “deserve a safe future” and warned that the legislation “will harm children”.
As MPs vote on the #IllegalMigrationBill, we ask them to remember the millions of child refugees around the world who have been forced to flee their homes.
— Save the Children UK (@savechildrenuk) April 26, 2023
They deserve a safe future. This Bill will not stop boats and will harm children.
It must be stopped. pic.twitter.com/U3ryvSu58h
Another MP to raise concerns is Liberal Democrat shadow leader of the House of Commons, Wera Hobhouse, who said the legislation is too focused on people smugglers “rather than the damage that is being caused to vulnerable children who are already traumatised”.
The bill will now be put before peers, who can add further amendments or delay it.
