Earlier this month, a four-hour parliamentary debate on the illegal migration bill produced the expected majority (63) to secure a second reading. But during that debate there was a potentially misleading clarification from the home secretary. Claiming that the opposition had mischaracterised the bill’s proposals, Suella Braverman carefully noted that the government would not be detaining children. Or rather, for those who listened carefully, it would not be detaining unaccompanied children.
Good. But although unaccompanied children may not be detained, other children will be. The government is proposing to change the status of children and family groups in the UK asylum system. And in doing so it will overturn 12 years of established cross-party consensus in the UK that we are not a country that detains children and families for solely administrative immigration purposes. This policy was agreed by senior Conservatives still sitting in parliament. To overturn it would be a deeply, deeply regressive act.
