There have been several references in previous entries of this blog to the patently unjust and inhuman manner Britain now treats asylum seekers. It is as if the words have lost their meaning and the term is now simply a euphemism for 'foreign scrouger'. A hidden aspect and probably the most shocking is how our 'robust' enforcement regimes deal with the children of asylum seekers. About 2,000 kids are locked up in immigration detention centres each year in conditions barely discernible from actual prison. At Yarl's Wood children must pass through eight locked doors before reaching their rooms, they are searched each time, with very little freedom to mix with other families. They have lost nearly all possessions, they have no access to pediatric care and for those traumatised, there is no mental health provision. The catalogue of brutal treatment meted out to these minors is utterly indefensible. Check the link below to the article in this week's New Statesman by Sir Al Aynsley-Green, the Children's Commisioner. I met Sir Al a few times and he is very earnest, polite, serious. He always tries to find the best of any situation but his assessment of the treatment by the British Immigration Agency is scathing. The case studies read like something from Turkey in the 1970s.
http://www.newstatesman.com/law-and-reform/2008/09/children-detention-immigration
How did we reach this intolerable place? It must be a few Home Secretaries ago, Straw or Blunkett when the Labour Government was being baited by the Conservatives and the Mail for being a 'soft touch'. Well we've certainly dispelled that accusation.
This summer, I met up with an old friend who has lived in Spain for some years. It seemed very apt to be discussing the state of the nation while watching some cricket at the Oval. When I told him the stories of asylum seekers from being treated with chemo being deported he was dumbfounded. Turning back to game he said wistfully, " I thought this was England....and I thought it was a Labour Government."
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