Around 2,000 children are detained for immigration purposes in the UK each year, an experience likened to being in prison. They are the only children in the UK who can be locked up indefinitely without having committed a crime.
These are either the children of asylum seekers or migrants, and are detained with their families, or children the Government believes are actually aged over 18. Some were born in the UK and many don't remember another home - on visiting Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre, near Bedford, one of three centres where children are held, Children's Commissioner for England Sir Al Aynsley-Green noted that many of the children spoke with regional British accents.
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