Shabana Mahmood’s plans to detain and handcuff children during deportation are ‘abhorrent’, 150 charities warn Starmer
Nearly 150 children’s charities and organizations have warned that Shabana Mahmood’s plans to detain and handcuff children while families are deported are “disgusting” and will cause “permanent damage”.
Foster organisations, social care workers and refugee charities accused the government of a “persistent attack on children’s rights” in a joint letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Monday.
The home secretary has announced a raft of immigration reforms that will affect children, including delaying settlement pathways for families already in the UK and removing support for families whose asylum applications are rejected.
Ms Mahmood is currently consulting on an initiative to increase deportations of unsuccessful families seeking asylum and on changes to allow the use of physical force against children.
The government’s consultation document makes clear that a child resisting deportation may be physically intervened. Immigration officers will be allowed to transport the children and handcuff them if necessary, the document states.
He lists a parent who refuses to let go of his child as an example of failure to comply with deportation.
In a letter to Sir Keir, the charities warn that the proposals will cause “distress, trauma and lasting emotional damage to children”. He adds: “It is abhorrent to describe such harm to children as ‘unfortunate but necessary and justified’.”
It continues: “We call on you to change course and create policies that reflect the simple truths we all know to be true. Children growing up here belong here. Children need stability and certainty to thrive.”
Analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) estimates that the Home Office’s settlement changes that will make it harder for foreign nationals to stay in the UK permanently could extend poverty for up to 90,000 children by 2029.
Ms Mahmood is extending the current five-year path to settlement to 10 years or more. As a result, hundreds of thousands of children will have to wait at least 10 years to find out whether they can stay in Britain.
Foreign nationals who depend on public funds or enter the UK by irregular means, such as on a small boat, will be further penalized, having to wait 20 or 30 years before they can apply for permanent settlement.
In March, Ms Mahmood announced that families with children who were unable to apply for asylum would be offered up to £40,000 to leave the country as soon as possible or face deportation.
A pilot scheme was launched for 150 families living in immigration hotels, with families offered to voluntarily contribute £10,000 per member (cap of four people per family).
They will have seven days to respond and if they do not accept the offer, the Home Office will try to forcibly remove them from the country.
A Home Office spokesman said: “Between 2021 and 2024 this country has experienced migration at levels it has seen historically for four decades. We must be honest about the scale and impact of hundreds of thousands of low-skilled migrants reaching settlement.”
“We are reforming a broken immigration system and make no apologies for taking the necessary steps to restore order, while also fulfilling the government’s commitment to reduce child poverty and education inequality.”
