Groups back peers on education revolt

Charities, doctors, refugee campaigners and trade unions have urged
MPs to back the House of Lords’ decision to reject proposals for
the separate education of asylum seeker children.

The House of Commons was this week voting on the changes agreed by
the Lords to the controversial Nationality, Immigration and Asylum
Bill.

Last month, peers voted against educating the children of asylum
seekers outside mainstream schools (news, page 13, 17
October).

The Lords also rejected the government’s plan to create three
750-bed accommodation centres for asylum seekers on rural
sites.

At the start of the Commons debate, Home Office minister Beverley
Hughes announced the government had abandoned plans to have a
750-bed accommodation centre in Throckmorton because of planning
difficulties.

But it would push ahead with two centres at RAF Newton and
Bicester.

A joint letter from the Children’s Society, the Refugee Council,
the Refugee Children’s Consortium, the British Medical Association
and several trade unions said segregated education had “no place in
modern-day Britain”.