DETENTION OF CHILDREN

That this House is concerned by the detention of children in UK immigration detention centres as part of the standard immigration procedure; recognises the negative impact on children's mental and physical health and the disruption of their education; welcomes the work conducted by the No Place for a Child Coalition involving Save the Children, the Refugee Council, Bail for Immigration Detainees, the Scottish Refugee Council and the Welsh Refugee Council to bring an end to this unjust policy; notes that the Home Office has commissioned work to examine alternatives to detention and urges Home Office Ministers to support the recommendations of No Place for a Child that children should be treated as children first and foremost and their needs and rights protected; calls for alternatives to detention to be piloted; and urges the Government to make detailed statistics available on an ongoing basis regarding the ages of, and numbers of, children held in detention and the length of time each is held in detention.