UK Borders Bill

My Lords, I, too, support Amendment No. 5 and wish to add to the evidence produced by noble Lords on the needs of those who are not eventually deported. My experience has been with families and children who have spent time in detention but who for a variety of reasons have not in the end been deported. I have had contact with their teachers in the community and have heard of the damage which their teachers believe has been done to those children during the time that they have spent in detention. While it may not be possible to avoid that, a clause like this would provide some defence against the treatment which those children have experienced. We have heard a lot about extreme circumstances and the wholly exceptional. My difficulties are with those circumstances that do not seem to be extreme or wholly exceptional, but in which people are taken into detention and there is no clear indication that they are actually going to be deported at the end of that time. It adds to the evidence which noble Lords have produced that we really do need a clause to provide real protection for children. If the Minister cannot accept the amendment in this form, I hope that he can indicate what provision he will be able to make for children who come into the detention sector in this way.