Home Office Failing to Comply with its Policies on the Detention of Children

Reports now show that the Home Office is actually failing to comply with its very own policies on the detention of children that are seeking asylum. According to a lawyer specializing in civil rights cases, Soclicitor Foiona Murphy, children involved in asylum cases are being held in prison type conditions.

Ms Murphy went on to make this criticism known after revealing that a Bolivian woman and her children were paid £100,000 in compensation by the Home Office, because they were unlawfully detained at a center in Oakington near Cambridge for a whole month. The Home Office was not available for any comments.

Murphy went on to say that this is simply one case out of many that demonstrate the failure of the Home Office to comply with its own policy on the detention of children. Children are being detained in prison type conditions, and as this case demonstrates, the consequences are extremely damaging to these young kids. After all, it is not like these kids are spending just a few days in these conditions. This recent case saw children in these conditions for a month.

The lawyer noted that Carmen Quiroga and her children, who are between the ages of three and 11, were detained for 42 days in 2004. She said that Ms Quiroga's had taken legal action, alleging that the Home Office behaved unlawfully. A judge went on to approve a settlement of Ms Quiroga's claim at a private High Court hearing in London on Friday.

The children and this woman suffered appalling conditions and sustained psychiatric injuries due to it. Ms Murphy said that the family has been terrorized by the detention center staff who abused and threatened them. This family witnessed other detainees suffering similar treatment.