The Big Question

Len Smith – Gypsy activist
Section nine is an abomination, and any campaign against it must be strongly supported. To use the threat of taking children into care to blackmail failed asylum seekers into leaving the country is inhuman. Whatever the arguments about deporting failed asylum seekers, section nine is more than a step too far, it’s a leap.

Angie Lawrence – Single mother
Section nine should be fought. Children’s best interests should be paramount, and being separated from the parents because of asylum and immigration laws should not be an option. This piece of legislation puts immigration before children, and it is clearly racist. In reality, UK industry would be at a sore loss without its migrant workers.

Kierra Box – Young people’s activist
I support the social workers. There must be a reason why those who’ve had their claims rejected don’t want to leave this country. I doubt whether they would travel half way across the world just to experience our welfare system. It seems that we have no more respect for human rights than the countries many of them have come from.

Jaya Kathrecha – Carer
It’s tricky because children are involved. The rejected asylum seekers shouldn’t have been allowed into the country in the first place – they should have had a system under which they applied for asylum from their home country. But section nine is wrong – if children are taken into care, they may end up in prison or in mental health care.