MORE CHILDREN HELD AT ASYLUM CENTRE

HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, also criticised immigration chiefs for handcuffing asylum seekers held at Dungavel in public, despite pledging not to do so.

Detainees were still being cuffed while appearing at hearings, or when accompanying their children to hospital.

The controversial centre in Strathaven, Lanarkshire, has been a constant target of criticism from politicians, pro-asylum activists and church leaders since it opened in 2001.

The inspection, which made 76 recommendations for improvements, found 122 children had been kept at Dungavel during the first 11 months of last year compared with 94 in the previous 12 months.

The average length of detention for children had also risen, from three days to nearly three and a half days, although seven youngsters had been held for more than seven days, including two for 32 days.

"The detention of children should be exceptional and for the shortest possible period, and the interests of the child should be fully considered and documented before the detention is authorised," the report recommended.

It also found South Lanarkshire Social Services were waiting too long - 21 days - to carry out welfare assessments on child detainees and inspectors recommended they should be seen after seven days.

Despite a number of shortcomings, 190-capacity Dungavel was praised on the whole as "the best-run IRC (immigration removal centre) we have inspected".

But criticism was levelled at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate for the lengthy periods of time detainees were spending in escort vans and the frequency with which they were moved. Some 57% of detainees reported having spent more than four hours in a van, against 26% for the detention estate.