UK Borders Bill

I speak as the patron of the Haslar Visitors Group, because I have just been told a story about the treatment of young children pending removal, which I hope that the Committee will find relevant. On 22 March, a woman from Kosovo and her three children under seven, including a new-born baby, were dawn-raided at their home in Portsmouth while her partner was in London. The children had to witness their parents’ possessions being rifled through in a search for documents. They were not given time to eat breakfast, but were taken to Yarl’s Wood and informed that they would be on a flight back to Kosovo on the following Thursday. On the Wednesday before that, the baby started vomiting and seemed seriously ill, so the whole family was rushed to hospital. They spent the day there, but in the early evening the older children were returned to Yarl’s Wood alone, against their mother’s wishes. The children were terrified and screaming, but had to spend the night in Yarl’s Wood while their mother remained in hospital with the sick baby. The following evening, the mother was taken back to Yarl’s Wood, while the baby stayed in hospital. In other words, she was reunited with her older children, but separated from her sick baby. On 30 March, the mother was taken back to the hospital to see the baby and said that the nappies had not been changed since she had left the previous day. The baby was discharged later on the same day and, by the evening, they were all together in Yarl’s Wood. Despite the age of the children, they were all held there for two months. They were then returned to Portsmouth and reunited with their father, who had been too afraid of arrest to visit them. This story may illustrate the range of problems with which the authorities are faced in meeting the best interests of the child during the process of removal—it is no easy matter. It also shows the Home Office’s desperation to achieve its targets, and the lack of consideration for family life which characterises some aspects of government policy. I know that later we shall come to amendments in the name of my noble friend Lord Listowel and others which relate specifically to removals but, as the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, asked, with these sorts of stories, how can we have any confidence in the process?