If given the power, will Priti Patel send children – along with everyone else seeking asylum in the UK – to hidden offshore camps, in distant countries?
It’s a straightforward question. So why did this Government refuse to answer when put under a spotlight in the House of Lords on 8 February 2022?
We can only assume that they would, in fact, lock children behind fences. Beyond our protection. For years on end. And we cannot let that happen.
We know what could happen if this Government detains children offshore, because we’ve witnessed the Australian system that has inspired them.
When the Australian Government sent refugee children to its prison-like camps on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru, the results were truly sickening.
From 2013 onwards, more than 200 children were locked away for years in overcrowded, mouldy tents on the polluted site of a former phosphate mine. 46 children were born into those conditions.
Denied proper support or supervision, the children were subjected to thousands of incidents of neglect, as well as physical and sexual abuse by guards. Children as young as 10 attempted suicide. Dozens were diagnosed with Traumatic Withdrawal Syndrome, a deteriorating condition that begins with disengagement from activities such as playing or drawing and ends in the refusal of food and water.
We can stop this Government resurrecting this experiment in cruelty. That’s why we’ve been building a political rebellion, to cut these plans out of the Government’s Anti-Refugee Bill.
WILL YOU HELP BY SIGNING DETENTION ACTION’S LETTER TO BORIS JOHNSON AND PRITI PATEL?
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