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SIGN THE PETITION!
OVER 4,700 HAVE SIGNED!
We have now attracted more than 4,700 names to the end child detention petition on the N010 web site, which is among the top 30 most signed petitions in the country. This is a fantastic achievement in just a few short months. But we know that there are many, many more people out there who share our opposition to the imprisonment of children, so please pass this link on to all your friends, families and colleagues.
Among the many signatures on the petition we are thrilled to see Emma Thompson, Juliet Stevenson, Bishop Michael Campbell of Lancaster, Colin* and Livia Firth, Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Rosen, Benjamin Zephania, Philip Pullman, Michael Bond, Lenny Henry, Michael Morpurgo, Lynne Reid Banks and hundreds of health professionals, clergy and social workers. Please take a minute to join them by following the link below.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NoChildDetention/
You must be a UK voter or resident in the UK or a Crown Dependent Territory to sign the e-petition. Only your name is published on the petition website.
* well done Colin on your Oscar nomination!
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End Child Detention Now website
End Child Detention Now is a citizens’ initiative which sprang from a successful campaign to release a Barnsley born toddler and his parents from Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention Centre where he had been held for more than three weeks in July 2009.
End Child Detention Now is run entirely by volunteers, we have no paid staff, and no income. There is a good reason for this – we want our campaign to be one of the shortest in British political history. Sadly though we suspect we might be here after Christmas still thinking of ways in which we can stop children being locked up.
With our votes, our voices and our determination we all have the power to end child detention now together.
The Guardian, 24 May 2010
| I am distressed to learn that only days after the government agreed to end the iniquity of child detention, a mother and baby were summarily arrested, detained and deported last week. Sehar Shebaz – from Pakistan – and her baby Wania, who have been living lawfully in Glasgow for three years, were snatched on Monday when reporting as required every fortnight to the authorities, whisked to Dungaval prison, detained and then taken the 350 miles to Yarl's Wood detention centre.
| At Yarl's Wood they were segregated from fellow detainees in the "family care suite", then taken to the airport on Saturday evening and flown to Pakistan.
Shebaz is the victim of well-documented domestic violence in the UK. Her escape from her husband is extremely likely to incur retributive violence when she sets foot in Pakistan. Her life and her baby's are at serious risk. Damian Green, the immigration minister, refused to give Shebaz compassionate leave to remain despite receiving copies of police reports and letters from Blackburn Women's Aid confirming she was subjected to domestic violence. I urge the new government to demonstrate civilised and compassionate values by doing everything in its power to secure Shebaz and her baby's safety, to stop the shameful cruelty of arresting and detaining children and their parents, and to release the families currently being held without prevarication.
Colin Firth
London
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