This petition is now closed, as its deadline has passed.
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to end child immigration detention. More details
Submitted by Esme Madill of End Child Detention – Deadline to sign up by: 06 June 2010 – Signatures: 4,925
In the UK we routinely detain the children of asylum seekers in removal centres, prisons in all but name.
We detain 2000 children every year, many for months on end. These children have committed no crime. They, or their parents, have simply exercised their right to claim asylum.
The children of asylum seekers are the only children who may be detained without time limit and the UK is the only European country where this happens. Australia, for example, has pledged to never put another asylum seeking child in a detention centre.
For many families, detention unearths past terrors and causes psychological distress. Cut off from family and friends, children in detention experience insomnia, weight loss, depression and self harm. Children’s Commissioner for England, Sir Al Aynsley Green, visited Yarl’s Wood removal centre to interview child detainees and called for child detention to end immediately.
If enough people speak out the government will have to listen. Please sign our petition.
Thank you.
Because there are so many signatories, only the most recent 500 are shown on this page.
Because there are so many signatories, only the most recent 500 are shown on this page.