The Hindu : U.K. reviews asylum package

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 07, 2002

International

International

U.K. reviews asylum package

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON NOV. 6. The Blair Government was today forced to review its controversial plans for detention centres for asylum seekers following widespread protests both within and outside Parliament. But it continued to face hostility, including from many of its own members, on its decision to bar children of asylum applicants from attending mainstream schools.

As many as 42 Labour MPs defied the Government to vote against the decision saying it amounted to "educational apartheid''. The protest was led by the high-profile Glenda Jackson, a former film personality, who described the move as inexplicable. Another senior backbencher Neil Gerrard said that children of asylum-seekers were already often victims of "discrimination and segregation'' and the government's decision to deny them mainstream schooling would add to their trauma. ``How can we justify that'' he asked.

The move, which forms part of the Government's new tough immigration and asylum package, provides for children of asylum-seekers to be taught at detention centres until their parents' future is decided. They would be allowed to attend local schools only when their parents are granted refugee status.

The Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes defended the decision saying it would be good for the children's confidence if they were given education within the secure environment of a detention centre, and would provide a "period of stability''. She also justified keeping asylum-seekers in detention centres, pending a decision on their applications arguing that it would contribute to a "more efficient management'' of the refugee problem. However, the Government agreed to make a number of concessions in order to buy support for the contentious Nationality, Immigration and Asylum bill which was defeated in the Lords recently.

The concessions included putting a time-frame beyond which asylum-seekers would not be kept in detention centres; scrapping plans to build a large detention centre in Worcestershire following local protests; and a more liberal detention regime.

While Labour MPs remained unhappy, the Tory shadow home secretary, Oliver Letwin, welcomed the concessions. Meanwhile, there was jubilation in government circles over the closure of the Sangatte refugee camp, in Calais, which had become a springboard for illegal refugees to enter Britain and brought Anglo-French relations under pressure.

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