Children are not criminals

The Herald has long campaigned for a fairer and more transparent system of determining applications for asylum and a policy which treats asylum seekers humanely, especially where children are involved. The news that families with children are being detained in Dungavel House, the former open prison in Lanarkshire, pending deportation, alongside convicted rapists and paedophiles, is, therefore, extremely disturbing. We recognise that families whose claim for asylum has failed are now detained in Dungavel for days rather than weeks, but it is completely unacceptable that people who have committed no crime, particularly teenagers and children, should be forced to share accommodation, even for a short time, with dangerous criminals.