New Coalition Government to Stop the Detention of Asylum Seeking Children

Some young asylum seekers that come to the UK, try everything in their power to forget what happened to them. This happens to be the case for Umair Umar, who recalls very little about what he went through at Dungravel, a Scotland emigration detention center.

The 14-year-old and his family were held at the Lanarkshire facility for one night before they were rushed off hundreds of miles to another center, Tinsley House in Sussex, for another two days. The child said, that he does not want to remember. It was a very bad three days. He said that it felt like he was in prison.

However, it now seems that kids like Umair will benefit from the new government that has just come to be. This government said that it wants to end the practice of locking up children in emigration detention centers. Just at Dungavel, 103 people under the age of 16 were held just last year.

This new policy to not lock up kids is part of the coalition agreement that was struck between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. In Scotland, Liberal Democrats have long campaigned against this issue. The SNP government did oppose the measure, but was unable to prevent children from being held, because emigration is a reserved matter.

Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland, said that this is an agreement that he is very proud of. Ending the detention of children in emigration removal centers like Dungavel is something that the Labour party failed to do for 13 years. This is something that can now be delivered.