All deportation, detention and dispersal of school or pre-school aged children or those in full time education must stop immediately.

At the heart of this are the priorities of the government. They assert that the status of the child takes precedence over any other consideration. In practice, however, children are refugees or asylum seekers first and children second. Health, security and education are less important than the need to have a ‘body' available for instant removal from the country when the Home Secretary deems it appropriate.

The United Kingdom has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which states that: ‘States Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure that a child who is seeking refugee status or who is considered a refugee in accordance with applicable international or domestic law and procedures shall, whether unaccompanied or accompanied by his or her parents or by any other person, receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance ….'

However the British Government has entered a general reservation to the treaty that effectively allows it to put immigration control before the rights of children seeking asylum. The parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has stated that this reservation amounts to
‘unjustified discrimination against asylum-seeking children on the grounds of nationality'

The British Government has stated that this reservation does not ‘prevent children's best interests from being taken into account'. However, it is clear from independent research that children's interests are not put before immigration control procedures. A recent report by Save the Children demonstrates the appalling detention conditions imposed on children seeking asylum in the UK. They state that there is ‘…the need for an entirely different approach towards children who are subject to immigration control. One that places their needs and interest as children at the centre of decision making'.

Similarly, Ann Owers, the Chief Inspector of prisons, has requested that the government ensure that ‘Children's rights and needs for care and protection are respected and met in full'.

Clause 11 of the Children Act places an obligation on organisations to protect the welfare of children. But it excludes the immigration authorities. Together, these exemptions imply two standards for the care of children: one standard for Europeans and another for the rest. The results of this policy are not accidental or tangential collateral damage. They are the intended outcome. Children are currently detained in the UK as part of fast track procedures for asylum determination. Processes for ensuring that there are no obstacles for removal and that the welfare of children is taken into account in the decision to detain are not always effective. The disruption to mainstream schooling during and after detention and the learning environment in detention has a damaging impact on children's education.

The Home Office still refuses to reveal the number of children in detention centres or the length of their confinement. Save the Children estimates that around 2000 children are held in detention centres each year, for periods of up to 268 days. Equally, there are no reports on the numbers of young offenders whose age is disputed. A study of the Cambridgeshire social services found almost half of age-disputed cases to be under 18 (BBC news); as a consequence, numerous unaccompanied children who fail to look adequately young share the same cells with adult detainees.

Asylum seeking children have very limited rights compared to young offenders. British detention centres have either no educational facilities or very inadequate services for children. Ann Owers reported that the safeguards protecting young asylum seekers from adult detainees are either non-existent or inefficient, while access to legal advice or local social services in very restricted . Parents often complain that their children receive very poor diets, that they suffer from lack of sleep, depression or persistent coughing. Although the damage to the physical health of young detainees is apparent, the damage to the children's mental health is impossible to measure and much more difficult to restore.

Similarly, the Home Office statistics do not state clearly the numbers of dependant and unaccompanied children being deported each year. A rough estimate from the total numbers of deportations, the percentage of dependants and the percentage of minors amongst dependants indicates that around 1500 children are removed from the country each year. The main destinations of deportees are Iraq, Serbia Montenegro, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Nigeria and until recently Zimbabwe. A number of these children were born here or spent the greatest part of their lives in this country. Most of these children had formed friendships who were broken and had their education violently disrupted, while for all of these children the future will be uncertain in the countries where they are being deported.

The 'Stop Deporting Children Campaign' demands that the government puts children's rights and needs before the needs of immigration control..