Jacquie Heralds Moves to End Child Detention

Jacquie Bell has welcomed news that the coalition government will be proceeding with Lib Dem manifesto policy to end the detention of children seeking sanctuary.

Today it will be announced by the Immigration Minister that detention of children at Dungavel will cease immediately. This is important as although the facility is in Scotland detention there has been managed by Westminster.

"This move does not come too soon" said Jacquie. "Only this week a woman and her baby who had been living in the UK for 3 years were taken to Dungavel in the early hours.

The move is a first step as the new coalition government seeks to introduce humane alternatives to detention. The ending of detention of children in Yarlswood must be next, and must be soon."

The matter is one that Stockton Lib Dem activists have been working on for many years. I have written national policy on the subject and in March both Cllr Suzanne Fletcher and I called for an end to child detention at the March Lib Dem Federal Conference in Birmingham."