At Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre, children have been referred to by staff as “child male” and “child female”. 

The charity Bail for Immigration Detainees published a report in May 2005 on the cases of 13 adults and 3 children who had been held in immigration detention for between 40 and 720 days (an average of 250 days). 

A 13 yr old boy, detained together with his father, was released after his father killed himself within hours of being taken to Yarl’s Wood.

The UK government currently detains more than 2,000 children, including babies, in immigration detention centres every year. One child was held for 268 days.

“The children were sick in detention. My daughter Sylvie said she was going to kill herself in there. She was crying all the time...She would be sucking her fingers and saying ‘I’m going to kill myself’” - 'Fit to be Detained? Challenging the detention of asylum seekers and migrants with health needs' by BID, including a report by Médicins Sans Frontières