How would you like it?

Detention Centres

A lot of asylum seekers come to Europe in search of a safe place to stay. Some do get homes, but some are sent back to their country, back to danger and perhaps death. A boy in my primary school, where I am a year 4 pupil, had come to England for safety. In the middle of the night when he was sleeping, a sergeant came and banged his door down.

He was then taken to a detention centre. It is shocking to think that children are taken to detention centres when their parents are the ones who have broken the law by staying in the country without permission. The question is: why does the government do this?

The organization Medical Justice is particularly concerned about children in detention centres who don’t get good quality medical care. Here are a few things that Medical Justice have found.

• Torture victims are neglected and re-traumatised by detention in the UK.
• People with HIV suffer unplanned disruption to their treatment in detention and may be denied HIV tests and results.
• Hunger strikers may suffer serious medical problems such as organ failure.
• Detainees found to have Tuberculosis have been denied appropriate medical care.
• Many detainees are denied treatment and access to hospital for serious medical conditions.

After hearing about detention centres, Medical Justice and the experience of a boy from my primary school, I hope you now know how horrible it must be to be locked up in a detention centre and that you share the same concern as Medical Justice. We need to find a better and kinder way of treating asylum seekers.