Young migrants, crime and detention: more needs to be done

This is a key finding from a new report looking at how and why young migrants, refugees and asylum seekers end up detained in immigration removal centres having spent a significant part of their childhood in the UK and feel British.

Researcher Dan Godshaw, from the University of Bristol, spent six months interviewing people in Brook House immigration removal centre near Gatwick to understand their background and what could have been done differently to prevent them from being detained.

He found they were likely to have experienced trauma as children and to have been in the care system. Inadequate support and inappropriate care placements left them vulnerable, with local authorities sometimes failing to regularise immigration status and citizenship.

A lack of guidance, as well as use of police intervention to deal with disruptive behaviour, often led to early convictions. Crimes that led to deportation orders were often relatively minor and inextricably tied to growing up as marginalised young people in Britain.

Access the full report:  DON’T DUMP ME IN A FOREIGN LAND. Immigration detention and young arrivers.