Resources

Since 2002, BID has been campaigning to end the immigration detention of children and their famillies. In 2011, we published research on the detention of children - read more about this here. With the Refugee Children's Consortium, we have published a briefing outlining our concerns about child detention and the new family returns process - click here for more details . 

Children we have worked with in detention have become extremely distressed and developed serious health problems during their incarceration. Medical studies have found that detention is associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicidal ideation, self-harm and developmental delay in children. In 2009 a 10-year-old girl attempted suicide in a UK Immigration Removal Centre.

After years of campaigning on this issue we were delighted when, in May 2010, the coalition government announced that they would end the immigration detention of children.

However, we have been very disappointed by subsequent announcements that children will continue to be detained at Tinsley House Immigration Removal Centre, and in a new Short Term Holding Facility in Crawley, Sussex.

We are calling on the government to fulfil their commitment to end the detention of children. We are also campaigning against harmful alternatives to child detention such as the separation of families. Download lobbying papers and research reports which we have published on the detention of children on the right hand side of this page.