Detention Centres: Children
Home Department

Stephen McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department by what date she expects to end the practice of detaining children of failed asylum seekers.

Damian Green (Minister of State (Immigration), Home Office; Ashford, Conservative)

On 16 December 2010, the Government announced a new package to deliver our commitment to end the detention of children for immigration purposes and the immediate closure to children of the family unit at the Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre. A new approach to managing family returns has been developed which places far greater emphasis on engagement with families and aims to encourage families to leave without the need for enforcement action if they are found to have no legal right to be in the UK.

Most elements of this new process went live across the UK on 1 March 2011, including a new independent Family Returns Panel to advise the UK Border Agency on how to ensure the return of those families who do not take up the opportunities to leave under their own steam. A range of options has been developed to provide sufficient flexibility for a tailored approach to each family.

As a backstop, a new option of pre-departure accommodation is being developed for use when other options for ensuring return have failed or are not appropriate. This will have a secure perimeter but families will be allowed to leave the premises with permission after a suitable risk assessment. It will have an entirely different look and feel to an immigration removal centre with more privacy and strictly time-limited stays. Barnardo's will deliver the key welfare, safeguarding and support services. We expect this to open in the summer.

The small number of family rooms at Tinsley House Immigration Removal Centre may be used in place of the new pre-departure accommodation until May. After May, Tinsley House will only be used for those few families who are refused entry to the UK at the border and need to be held for a short time prior to their return or for criminal and other high-risk families who could not be accommodated safely in the pre-departure accommodation.