Britain's new Immigration Minister announced that children would no longer be detained. The United Kingdom has often been criticised for keeping more than 1,000 children a year in detention centres. 'Refugee and Migrant Justice' applauds the new government for "recognising the inhumanity of this practice which treats children like criminals when they have done no crime and can leave scars for life. We hope that this will be implemented immediately and that whatever measures are brought in to replace detention will put the welfare and safety of these children first."

Sources:

- Refugee and Migrant Justice, 'Government pledge to end detention of children welcomed by Refugee and Migrant Justice'

- ECRE Weekly Bulletin, 21 may 2010

Detaining children in an immigration detention centre is "extremely distressing and harmful", according to a highly critical report on the conditions in the Yarl's Wood Immigration centre published by the Children's Commissioner for England. The report highlights a number of problems in the Yarl's Wood centre where more than 1,000 children are held every year. These include a failure to assess "even at an elementary level" the general psychological wellbeing of a child on arrival and a failure to recognise psychological harm when faced with dramatic changes in a child's behaviour. The UK Border Agency dismissed the report as "misguided and wrong" and insisted that they take the detention of families "very seriously" and use it only as a last resort. In response to the findings, Donna Covey, Chief Executive of the UK Refugee Council, said that: "These are children we are talking about. It is unacceptable that they are detained at all. Even if all the Commissioner's recommendations about procedure were followed to the letter, there is no escaping the harm that is caused by locking children up."

Source: ECRE Weekly Bulletin, 19 February 2010

Conditions at a privately run immigration removal centre have deteriorated so much that they are now "wholly unacceptable" for women and children, the chief inspector of prisons says today. The results of the unannounced inspection in October published on 18 December show that the centre has developed a "more prison-like culture" in the past 18 months and previous fears about the plight of a small number of children and women at this largely male establishment have grown.

Source: The Guardian, 18 December.

Depuis ce 15 juillet, les demandeurs d’asile déboutés ont, au Pays de Galles, un accès aux soins de santé égal à celui des résidents ordinaires.

Medsin recently released a report summarising 274 submissions to a health department consultation about charging overseas visitors for primary care. It said that 43% of respondents had concerns about the effects on public health of charging, and 55% thought that the proposed charging scheme would not be cost effective or practical to implement.

The Home Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, during consideration of the Draft (Partial) Immigration and Citizenship Bill, took extensive evidence from medical professionals and organisations – among which MDM UK- who were worried about the impact of proposals indicated in the Draft Bill to restrict access to health services for some groups of migrants.

On Monday 27 April 2009, England's Children's Commissioner published a report on the arrest and detention of children subject to immigration control. The Children's Commissioner is responsible for ensuring compliance by the State with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in England. The Commissioner describes the government's policy of holding children in removal centres as "harmful to their health and well-being".

Source: Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/27/childrenrefused-asylum-detention-centres

On 30 March 2009, the UK Asylum Appeals Court ruled in its judgment that failed asylum seekers with chronic illnesses were not entitled to free health care under the National Health Service (NHS). The test case was brought by a 35-year-old Palestinian man with a chronic liver disease who was initially refused free treatment to prevent liver failure.