Nikita Lalwani: The treatment of children seeking asylum exposes our double standards over civil...

Innocent children are being held in detention centres across the UK. These children are not there because they have broken the law. They are in detention because adults have forced them to leave their country of origin, and because adults have decided that the best way to deal with them, once they arrive in a new country, is to put them away. When it comes to the question of liberty, too often it feels like there are separate rules for "them" and "us". It is clear that children seeking asylum suffer the same hurt, humiliation, and loss of self-esteem that adults can experience if detained indefinitely in an unfamiliar, isolated and frequently hostile place. However, because they are children they are unable to seek legal action, or take any kind of decision about attempting to change their situation. The government maintains... [read full story]