Another coalition pledge lies in tatters

By Lisa Nandy MP / @lisanandy

The welcome but surprising pledge in the coalition agreement to end the detention of children for immigration purposes was supposed to symbolise the best of a Liberal-Tory coalition, but, perhaps less surprisingly, this week lies in tatters.

The Independent yesterday reported that, despite the most robust of assurances from Nick Clegg, an 11 year old girl was held in detention on Christmas Day, and campaigners who work with children traumatised by immigration detention have expressed concerns about the alternative centres the government is trialling.

Damian Green, the immigration minister, did a great deal of work on protecting the welfare of migrant children while in opposition and despite saying he is ‘bending over backwards’ to bring about its end has only departed from his characteristically cautious language once – when he promised to dress up as Father Christmas if children were still in detention by last Christmas. Contrast that with this statement from Nick Clegg:

“We are ending the shameful practice that last year alone saw over 1,000 children – 1,000 innocent children – imprisoned. The practice that, under Labour, saw children literally taken from their homes, without warning, and placed behind bars. Our reforms will deliver an approach to families that is compassionate and humane, while still maintaining the integrity of our immigration system. Because our starting point is this: there is no greater test of civilised society than how it treats its children.”

This enlightened promise that should have been symbolic of the Liberal influence in the coalition has instead become symbolic of the broken promises of the party Clegg leads. In reality I think it is likely that he is unable, rather than unwilling, to force the policy through.

There is a profit motive at the heart of the immigration system which makes it difficult to reform. Private companies make large profits from running detention centres and it seems this is likely to continue; this week I was sent an email suggesting that the coalition’s alternative may be run by another for-profit company: Arora Hotels. While there are entrenched financial incentives for detaining children it is hard to see how children’s interests or effective immigration control will ever prevail under this government.

That this issue, which Clegg staked his reputation on is so far from resolved nine months after the election, is a major problem for the Liberals; but it is much more of a problem for the children who continue to be detained. I have worked with children who were so traumatised by detention that months or sometimes years later they still showed the signs – weight loss, lack of confidence, stress and anxiety and in one case a 5 year old child who was rendered quite literally mute by his ordeal.

The fault line between the previous government and children’s groups was that the latter believed, like Clegg, that there are some lines you do not cross. That the harm done to children would always weigh as a much heavier consideration than the relentless pursuit of ‘get-tough’ immigration headlines, and that however effective detaining children was (although in fact, it wasn’t) it was not worth paying the price of a civilised and humane society. As children’s secretary, Ed Balls agreed and in the last years of the Labour government pushed through long-overdue laws protecting children in the immigration system.

Last week the supreme court handed down a judgment, based on that law, with far-reaching implications, establishing that although the best interests of the child do not outweigh all other considerations they are of primary importance. In light of this judgment it seems likely that continued detention of children will attract the attention of the courts. It would be both sad and ironic if this most iconic of the Liberal Democrat pledges had to be upheld by a law brought in by the previous Labour government that Clegg was so hasty to lambast.