OutCry!
Every year the UK immigration system locks up 1,000 children. Yet these children came to the UK seeking protection.
Detention is damaging, expensive and unnecessary.
STAR believes detaining children is immoral and unacceptable.
The Children’s Society and Bail for Immigration Detainees have joined forces with the OutCry! campaign.
The OutCry! campaign is demanding an end to the immigration detention of children.
Detention of children
Every year the UK immigration system locks up 1,000 children.
They have often fled countries where they experienced violence, war and discrimination. The children have committed no crime and are hidden from society. The effects are terrible. Many experience depression, weight-loss, bed-wetting and even self-harm.
It shouldn’t be like this.
It costs over £900 a week to hold a child in detention and we regularly work with children detained for over six weeks. The government believes that families run away from the authorities if they are not detained.
There is simply no evidence for this. As anyone with children will know, their education and health needs, friendship ties and desire for stability all prevent families from disappearing.
Alternatives to detention are available. They are cheaper and are successfully used in other countries.
We want to live in a more humane and compassionate society. We believe locking up children is immoral and unacceptable. Do you?
What you can do
Join the campaign
Sign up to the new OutCry! online campaign.
By signing up you will help to create a very real sense of local outrage and focus pressure on MPs and candidates in the run up to the General Election.
Sign Up to the OutCry! campaign
You can also send an email to your local newspaper and a copy of the email will be sent to your local MP demanding an end to the dentention of immigrant children.
Send an email to your local newspaper and local MP
Information and Resources
Go to the OutCry! website: http://www.outcrycampaign.org.uk
Download the OutCry! leaflet and poster:
