"I did not ask to be here” - Child Refugees in the UK’s 'Hostile Environment’

MDA arrived in the UK from Somalia aged 13 traumatised, mentally unwell and with suspected learning disability. He confided in few people and was aggressive and disturbed. He talked of men visible only to him who ordered him to commit violent acts, and of traumatic rape and abuse whether of, by or in front of him. How did he end up immigration detention for 15 months? including at Brook House, notorious subject of the recent Panorama documentary exposing brutal abuse of mentally ill detainees? How does mental capacity law and practice overlap with child law and the ‘balance sheet’ approach to best interests?

 

This seminar will trace through how adequate observance of child law and practice could have meant a different outcome for MDA and make some general observations about the lowly place of child rights in the hierarchy of dominant public law practice."

 

Amanda Weston is a barrister at garden Court Chambers. She practises across a wide range of public and administrative law fields with an emphasis on civil liberties and vulnerable client groups. Substantive areas of her public law practice include community care, mental health and mental capacity, unlawful detention, national security measures such as deprivation of citizenship, local authority, prison law, human rights and discrimination