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A UK-wide approach to ending the detention of asylum seeking children is needed, according to the Scottish children’s commissioner Kathleen Marshall, writes Derren Hayes.

Marshall, who last week marked her first anniversary in the post, said she would make the issue one of the themes of her second year in office and had discussed it recently with the new English children’s commissioner Professor Al Aynsley-Green.

She said a joint approach was needed because even though Dungavel detention centre had placed a 72-hour limit on detaining children, there was nothing stopping them being transferred to English detention centres once this had elapsed.

“My stance is that while these children are here they are entitled to have their human rights respected. We need a united approach to ending this – which was one of the recommendations of [February’s] Save the Children report [on child detention] – and I’m very keen to pursue this,” Marshall added.

Other issues she wants to address include the way children of failed asylum seekers are removed from their families, and ensuring new Scottish laws to protect children from abuse do not scare adults away from working and playing with them.