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Proceeding contribution from Damian Green (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Thursday, 17 June 2010. It occurred during Adjournment debate on Alternatives to Child Detention.


Alternatives to Child Detention

I am not entirely sure that I understood that question. Is the hon. Lady saying that those who were eventually removed had never been detained and then released, and then detained again and later removed? Is that what she is saying? The honest answer is that I do not know. I was not the Minister at that time. She was. If she says that that is the case, I am grateful for the information. Many hon. Members have mentioned Yarl's Wood and other detention centres. I have visited Yarl's Wood on several occasions, and in my experience the regime got markedly better over the years. Last time I visited, a functioning school was in operation and so on, and it was a much more humane place than it had been in previous years. I pay tribute to the Ministers who were involved in supervising that, as well as to the staff of the UK Border Agency who made sure that it happened. I suspect that we have all had the same experience. However, even when that place was in its most humane phase, it was still disturbing to see children locked up behind bars. That is one of the things that impels our policy. There was mention of children at Harmondsworth. I may have misunderstood the right hon. Member for Leicester East, because it is my understanding that there are and were no children held at Harmondsworth. If I have misunderstood, I apologise, but I thought that he had said that there were.


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
511 c231-2WH 
Session
2010-12
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
Subjects
Children Detainees Deportation Immigration controls Immigration Offenders Detention centres UK Border Agency
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk