Shabana Mahmood’s plans to detain and handcuff children during deportation are ‘abhorrent’, 150 charities warn Starmer

Shabana Mahmood’s plans to detain and handcuff children during family deportations are “abhorrent” and will cause “lasting damage”, nearly 150 children’s charities and organisations have warned.

In a joint letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Monday, fostering organisations, social care workers and refugee charities accused the government of a “sustained attack on children’s rights”.

The home secretary has announced a number of immigration reforms that will impact children, such as delaying routes to settlement for families already in the UK and removing support from families refused asylum.

Ms Mahmood is currently consulting on a push to increase deportations of failed asylum-seeking families and on changes that will allow physical force to be used against children.

The government’s consultation document makes clear that a child can be physically handled if they are resisting their deportation. Immigration officers will be allowed to carry children and handcuff them if necessary, the document says.

It lists a parent refusing to release a child’s hand as an example of non-compliance with deportation.

In the letter to Sir Keir, charities warn that these proposals will cause “distress, trauma and lasting emotional damage to children”. It adds: “To describe such harm to children as ‘unfortunate but necessary and justified’ is abhorrent”.

It continues: “We urge you to change course, and create policy that reflects simple facts we all know to be true. Children who grow up here belong here. Children need stability and certainty to thrive”.

Analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has estimated that the Home Office’s changes to settlement, which will make it harder for foreign nationals to stay permanently in the UK, could prolong poverty for up to 90,000 children by 2029.

Ms Mahmood is extending the current five-year pathway to settlement to 10 years or more. As a result, hundreds of thousands of children will have to wait last least 10 years before they know if they can stay in Britain.

Foreign nationals who have been dependent on public funds or who entered the UK irregularly, such as on a small boat, will be further penalised – having to wait 20 or 30 years before they can apply for permanent settlement.

In March, Ms Mahmood announced that failed asylum seeker families with children will be offered up to £40,000 to leave the country quickly or face being deported.

A pilot scheme was launched for 150 families who live in migrant hotels, with families offered £10,000 per member capped at four per family to leave voluntarily.

They will have seven days to reply, and if they do not take up the offer, the Home Office will attempt to forcibly remove them from the country.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Between 2021 and 2024 this country experienced levels of migration it had historically seen over four decades. We must be honest about the scale and impact of hundreds of thousands of lower-qualified migrants getting settlement.

“We are reforming a broken immigration system and make no apologies for taking the necessary action to restore order, while in tandem delivering on the government’s commitment to reduce child poverty and educational inequality.”