Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, has published a report criticising the continued detention of children at Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre.
The report was based on an announced inspection from 13-16 February 2006 designed to ascertain whether recommendations made following the full inspection in the previous year had been adhered to.
Yet despite identifying areas of improvement, the report remains critical of the detention of children in the centre and labels this issue as the 'most important concern' facing Yarl's Wood.
Continuing to fail children
Following the full inspection of Yarl's Wood in 2005, Anne Owers emphasised the 'weaknesses in child protection and child welfare', which included alarm over the length that some children were remaining in detention.
This concern re-surfaces in the 2006 report, which concludes that at the time of inspection 'children were still being detained for too long', indicating that Yarl's Wood had failed to meet one of the main recommendations made by Owers in the previous year, which stated that: 'The detention of children should be exceptional and for no more than a few days.'
Indeed, the report highlights that 'High numbers of children were still being detained at the centre' and details that: 'between May and October 2005, 897 children had been admitted to Yarl's Wood. 165 of these children were held for between four and seven days, 120 for between eight and fourteen days, 55 for between 15 and 21 days, 24 for between 29 and 56 days, and three for over 57 days.'
At the time of the unannounced inspection, one child had remained in detention for 112 days. The report concludes that 'the detention of [these] children could not be considered an exceptional measure, used for only a few days'.
