Dungavel Removal Centre

Letter to the Home Secretary 4/04/2003

4th April 2003

The Rt. Honourable David Blunkett, M.P.,

Home Secretary,

Home Office,

50 Queen Anne’s Gate,

LONDON   SW1H 9AT.

Dear David,

First of all, I thank you for your prompt reply to my letter which awaited me on my return from a meeting of the European Bishops in Brussels last week. I am very aware of the pressure on your time and I thank you for taking the time and trouble to respond to my concerns at some length.

I hope you will forgive me if, in a spirit of constructive dialogue, I take issue with some of the points which you make in your letter.

1. I understand that “detention” may be a necessary part of an effective immigration control. However, Dungavel, as I understand, was set up as a REMOVAL CENTRE. The principal issue which I believe we must address is the manner in which we are detaining the children of Asylum Seekers. Your letter of reply does not address the prison environment in which these children live. These conditions include locked doors and a lack of freedom of movement. Further, you make no mention of any attempt to find an alternative to this form of detention.

 2. To state that “no one is detained longer than necessary” is surely too vague. Detention has extended to eight months and beyond for some of the children I met. I am also concerned that while some children have not been detained as long as eight months, they have been detained beyond the removal time envisaged. 

You quote Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, in respect to privacy and family life, but Article 37b of the United Nations Convention on Human Rights for Children states that the detention of children must only be used as a last resort and for a minimum period. I do not accept that nine months and more can be seen as “the shortest appropriate time”.

 3. You make reference to the situation of one family in particular which I did not do. The difficulties of a particular case are not my point. I am concerned with the principle of how we detain the children of Asylum Seekers in any circumstances.

 4. On the issue of the education of the children in Dungavel I refer once again to the Convention on the Rights of the Child at Articles 27 to 29. In the light of these articles, I am not at all reassured when you write that,

“School aged children who stay at Dungavel are all given the opportunity to take part in classes no matter how brief their stay may be. The classes at Dungavel are tailored to deal with an unpredictable number of children of various ages and abilities…every attempt is made by the fully qualified teaching staff at the centre, to provide a challenging and interesting learning experience.”

 I am afraid that this is not borne out by my visit. In fact, the only teacher is not qualified to teach children of primary school age. She has ONE class with children of all school ages and, additionally, there are, of course, language difficulties. The teacher concerned, it must be said, does a wonderful job in impossible circumstances.

 I am aware that the issue of Asylum seekers is not devolved to the Scottish Parliament, but the question of Education is, and so I may be asking the Scottish Executive to address this issue on that ground.

 Home Secretary, I am glad you conclude by saying that you are prepared to see what more can be done. I look forward to hearing how this will affect the children being detained at Dungavel, for what is happening there besmirches the reputation of the Scottish people and it is a disgrace that the UK government seeks to justify this situation and to assure its continuation. The fact is that “we” are keeping children in a prison environment with locked doors in buildings surrounded by a ten feet high, grey, metal fence topped with barbed wire. I do not consider this a suitable environment for children. The response to the petition initiated by the Scottish Bishops from the people of our Parishes, and from the other Churches and organisations which have responded to our concerns, would suggest to me that I am not alone in having these concerns or these opinions.

 Thank you for taking the time to address this issue. Please be assured of my good wishes and prayers in the many important tasks which you confront in your Office.

 With every kind wish,

 Yours sincerely,

John Mone (signed)

Bishop of Paisley

President of Justice & Peace, Scotland.