Diane supports Children's Commissioner's findings on Yarl's Wood

Diane has welcomed a report released yesterday by The Children’s Commissioner in which he admits Yarl’s Wood is ‘no place for a child’.

The report into conditions at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre found that although standards have improved at since 2008, detaining children was still found to be distressing and harmful

Sir Al Aynsley-Green, Children’s Commissioner for England, also acknowledged he would like to see a faster process of removal and ultimately an end to the detention of children in the asylum system all together.

His report found that some children had been detained for longer than the average 2 weeks which was “unacceptable” and had not received good level of medical care.

He recommended more be done by UK Border Agency to improve arrest procedures and the conditions children are currently kept in.

Diane said: “I welcome today’s findings by The Children’s Commissioner as they confirm what I have been saying about the centre for some time. I have visited Yarl's Wood, and although the staff are dedicated, the conditions are not those in which one would want one's own child kept. Children are clearly being left distressed by the conditions in which they are being detained and that is unacceptable. While I am happy to hear there has been some progress, it is wrong that we continue to allow children to be detained for long periods of time, without proper medical attention and in some cases apart from their parents. I will continue to push for the government to stop the detaining of children.”

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