Asylum removals up by 20 per cent

More asylum seekers whose claims were failed were removed from the UK in the first three months of 2006 than ever before, the Home Office announced today as it published new statistics

Removals are up 19 per cent on the previous quarter and up 43 per cent when compared to 2005, according to the government.

In response, the No Place for a Child coalition, which includes Save the Children and the Refugee Council, again called for an end to the detention of children.

During the last three months of 2005, 540 minors were released from detention centres, an increase of 19 per cent on the previous quarter, says the coalition. Of these, 29 per cent had been in detention for more than a week, with 25 children being held for between one and two months.

Chief executive of Save the Children Jasmine Whitbread said:”The government has said that detention affects only a small number of families. These figures show that to be far from true.  Five hundred and forty children were affected in the last three months of 2005 by the traumatic experience of being locked up in detention centres, in many cases for long periods of time.”