The children will suffer whatever happens.

While everyone else complains about this nobody has a solution other than to do nothing which creates a much bigger problem.

You can link to my article on this through twitter later today (same username)

You’re completely right. Imprisoning children is an abrogation of a basic human decency. My point is that exposing children to that possibility, by dragging them across the world in a knowing effort to deceive, their parents are equally deserving of blame.

Detention…bad, but not prison, not Wormwood Scrubs…is given to those who, after investigation have been found not to fulfil the conditions of asylum entry and who could safely be returned.

Removing their children from them would be wrong. Allowing them to stay would not only be equally wrong, it would be completely unfair to genuine victims. Their refusal to provide information of their country of origin leaves us no choice.

There are millions, perhaps billions, of people with a lower standard of living than ours and existing under deeply unpleasant governments.

When deciding merit, it is our painful duty to separate them from those whose very existence is under imminent and genuine threat.

Now we shouldn’t ignore that some asylum applications will be bogus. But similarly we also shouldn’t ignore the reasons that drive people to submit bogus asylum applications.

But whatever. Imprisoning innocent children is sick.

If one needs the reason for the continued necessity of these centres, look no further than these sadly naive views. To believe that all who call themselves asylum seekers are in need of asylum is crass beyond belief.

And what an insult to those who have no need to lie.

Absolutely. May I be the second?

I used to consider the British approach to asylum seekers with pride. The treatment of people was never perfect but it made me feel good that asylum in the UK was a better option than other countries. Perhaps some asylum seekers perceive that the UK is a good place to head for because they speak a little English, but I reckon that most are attracted by a country that will treat them with dignity and provide opportunity. We are a gloriously mongrel nation and the mixed cultural DNA is our advantage.

Thus the mere existence of detention centres dismays me. No dignity, no opportunity, distrust.

From a window at work, I can look on the Attenborough family home where Richard and David grew up alongside two German Jewish refugees. That vista gives me hope.

I’m a big fan Septicisle, but you (and others) need to stop using the term ‘asylum seeker’ it’s right wing PC, no different to ‘enhanced interrogation’ or ‘low intensity warfare’. It’s designed to shift the emphasis on the more important factor of what refugees are fleeing, onto the less important factor of what they’re heading towards.

Anyways, on topic, BBC in rare ‘journalism’ shocker – http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2009/04/the_arrest_and_detention_of_ch.html

“Completely genuine asylum seekers do not cross ten friendly countries on the way to ’safety’ and they do not normally end up in detention.”

Completely genuine refugees don’t board the Kabul circular stopping in London, Paris, Madrid and Berlin, come back when you’ve been locked in the back of a few articulated lorries or cargo holds of planes and tell us all about the logistics of stopping in friendly countries.

But regardless of whether or not you agree with that, the children of people here illegally are Innocents. That’s irrefutable. We (rightly) argued that terror suspects should not be imprisoned for more than 28 days. So why are we allowing this wretched government do far worse to Innocents, who aren’t even suspected of anything? It’s sick.

I have yet to see any politician asked this question: “should we be imprisoning children in immigration detention centres?” I went to a Meet Nick Clegg event in Oxford last month, and intended on asking him this very question, but didn’t get the chance. I’d love to see Cameron’s response to this: lets see how far down this new civil libertarian streak runs, and whether he means it when to says he’s a “compassionate” and “liberal” Conservative.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by libcon: :: Immigration: the scandal of child detentions http://bit.ly/4P2EDh...

So – someone turns up in your country having been made desperate enough to leave theirs, and they inevitably get a fair hearing for asylum? I did some interviews a while back with a number of asylum seekers, and they seemed to think living unemployed on various rubbish tips here while waiting for their applications to be processed was eminently preferable to returning home to face the wrath of administrations they hadn’t always seen eye to eye with…

May I be the first on this thread to call you a cunt.

Completely genuine asylum seekers do not cross ten friendly countries on the way to ‘safety’ and they do not normally end up in detention.

The party’s soul is dead. Iraq, the recession, new ranks on the breadline, the indifference to children described in the above post have all taken their piece. By all means sling shit at the Tories, but this site benefits endlessly from this kind of post which doesn’t flinch from Labour’s human rights record.