if you consider that women and children being locked up in prisons when they present no threat whatsoever to our communities on the outside is not enough for you....

...check out these various quotes and criticisms from the government's very own chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers.... - there's lots of reports and concerns not only from her, the government appointed children's commissioner and a wide range of voluntary agencies - it's all out there....

 http://press.homeoffice.gov.uk/press-releases/yarl%27s-wood-children%27s-detention.html

"Key concerns were:
* there was no evidence that children’s welfare was taken into account when making detention decisions;
* a social worker had been appointed to make independent assessments of children’s welfare, though she later resigned. Her role was unclear and there were no systems to ensure that her advice affected decisions; and
* there were weaknesses in child protection arrangements.
In relation to adult detainees, inspectors noted:
* staff lacked sufficient guidance in managing suicide and self-harm;
* it was even more difficult for detainees to get up-to-date information about their cases; and
* removals were still carried out without proper warning or planning."

“Our interviews with detained children present a child’s eye view of detention. They vividly illustrate the effect of sudden arrest and detention on the wellbeing of children, and the extent of their fears and anxieties for themselves and their parents.

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/aug/22/immigration.childprotection

"The report, by the prisons inspector, Anne Owers, raised "serious concerns" about the lack of specialist healthcare for youngsters at the detention centre for immigrants.

It criticised the management for wrongly detaining disabled children and keeping inaccurate records."

"While child welfare services had improved, an immigration removal centre can never be a suitable place for children and we were dismayed to find cases of disabled children being detained and some children spending large amounts of time incarcerated," she wrote.

"Any period of detention can be detrimental to children and their families, but the impact of lengthy detention is particularly extreme."

Interviews with parents revealed that many believed their children's condition had deteriorated soon after their arrival at Yarl's Wood.

Youngsters who otherwise had been described as coping well in the outside community were reported to have had difficulty eating and sleeping, become withdrawn and shown other symptoms such as bed wetting.

Nearly all children said they had felt scared, upset or worried on arrival at the centre, "which was not surprising given the sometimes traumatic circumstances in which many had initially been detained".

Teachers working at Yarl's Wood also reported cases of children withdrawing or appearing depressed and becoming rebellious and unreasonable following admission

Health services for youngsters were also criticised, with the report finding that "there were no specialist health services for children".

There was no registered sick children's nurse, although the post was being advertised. Mental health services for children were not easily accessible, and there was no children's counsellor.

"We found examples in the recent past of children with disabilities who ought not to have been detained," the report said.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7575483.stm

An immigration removal centre has wrongfully detained disabled children and transports families in metal cages, the prisons' inspectorate has found.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons said children were detained for too long and left distressed and scared at the Yarl's Wood centre in Bedfordshire.

The report also found there was inaccurate monitoring of how long children were being held for, inadequate education and after-school facilities, and some families had been transported to and from the centre in caged vans.

She said: "Significant concerns remain, particularly the lack of activity for detainees, which is a failure that we have identified across the immigration detainee estate.

"Even more worrying was the plight of children detained for increasing periods of time and with insufficient provision to meet their needs."

It is not the first time child welfare has been criticised at the centre.

In July 2005 another HM Inspectorate of Prisons report found children were being "damaged" by their detention there.

At the time, Ms Owers said an autistic girl of five had been held at Yarl's Wood and not eaten properly for four days and that education at the centre was "inadequate" and "depressing".

There have been reports of severly disturbed women, often survivors of rape and torture getting no care. Women have been beaten and seperated from their children. Women have had to beg and been ignored when asking for basic things like tampons. Women and children have suffered racist abuse in these concentration camps. Some women have been trafficked for the sex industry by pimps, against their will....then they are locked up in Yarls Wood.
Imagine if it were you. If these were white English women and children being locked up like this abroad we would never hear the end of it. It would be on New At Ten every night until they were freed. But these aren't white English women and children so they they stay locked up, in England, while much of the country watch East Enders and talk about the characters in it as if they matter.
When people talk about World War 2 they see the Nazi concentration camps and say " nothing that would never happen again"...well it is..right here right now. Those women and kids might not be starving or being experimented on but they are locked up and being mistreated.

Could this be tagged 'migration' - lot's of people only read indymedia via rss feeds.

It seems most of the complaints listed here are concerned with the running of the prison and the day-to-day details. I don't see how these can be used as an excuse to demand the 'closure' of the prison. Surely its just a case of sorting this things out?