Evidence library

This report is the first large scale exploration in the UK of the physical and psychological harms caused and aggravated by the detention of children for immigration purposes. It exposes a catalogue of damage that has been both caused and exacerbated by detaining children for the purposes of immigration control and provides a series of recommendations which the authors say should be addressed urgently by the government. The report features 141 cases involving children who were detained between 2004 and April 2010. The children are from 87 different families. The medical evidence used in this report comes from the work of 15 independent expert clinicians.