Yarl’s Wood: Detained children face ‘extreme distress’

The Guardian – Children held at an immigration detention centre face “extremely distressing” arrest and transportation procedures, and are subjected to prolonged and sometimes repeated periods of detention, according to a damning report by the Children’s Commissioner.

In a report that prompted an angry response from the UK Border Agency (UKBA), Sir Al Aynsley-Green highlighted concerns over “significant areas” of healthcare for the 1,000 children held in the Yarl’s Wood centre every year.

They include a failure to assess “even at an elementary level” the general psychological wellbeing of a child on arrival and a failure to recognise psychological harm when faced with dramatic changes in a child’s behaviour. The report highlighted the cases of one four-year-old boy who appeared withdrawn, wetting when previously dry, and an eight-year-old previously happy boy who had become sad, skipped school, lost his appetite, slept poorly and screamed in the night.

Aynsley-Green concluded that the poor care and unacceptable delays in the case of a three-year-old child with a fractured arm was symptomatic of a failure to provide a standard of NHS care that any British citizen could expect. The child had been examined by a nurse hours after a fall, but was not seen by a doctor until 15 hours later and, five hours after that, was taken to hospital. The report also highlighted an allegation, disputed by the UKBA, that a 10-year-old girl had her head banged against the wall by an officer to wake her up and then attempted self-harm by swallowing shower gel.

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