The Kids Britain Doesn't Want

In September, a Medical Justice report found over half of the children caught up in Britain's immigration removal centres have suffered permanent psychological harm. This led to the Medical Foundation and other members of the Refugee Children's Consortium (RCC) drafting an open letter to the government reminding it of its commitment in May to end the incarceration of children for immigration purposes.

In July, the new Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had described the detention of children as a “moral outrage” and announced that the family wing at Yarl’s Wood detention centre would close. Following several months of piloting alternative initiatives to detention for removal of families from the UK, in December, Clegg finally set out a timetable for the end to child detention by May 2011.

Medical Foundation client Mary featured in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary - “The Kids Britain Doesn't Want” - in November which focused on the experiences of three young people seeking sanctuary in the UK. It showed how they have been met by a culture of disbelief and an asylum system that in some cases causes profound psychological and physical harm.

Earlier in the year, the Medical Foundation had also expressed real concerns in light of the news, in July, that a "reintegration centre" was being setup in Afghanistan to allow the UK to start removing unaccompanied child asylum seekers to Kabul. The Medical Foundation raised serious questions around the long-term rehabilitation of these children, many of whom have complex physical and psychological needs resulting from extreme trauma.