‘Secret’ manual reveals brutal methods used on youths

originally published by: Mail on Sunday
18th July 2010

A government manual instructing prison staff on how to inflict pain on teenage inmates was today labelled ‘state authorised child abuse’.

The Ministry of Justice was forced to release details of its approved ‘restraint and self-defence techniques’ for children in secure training centres after a lengthy freedom of information battle. The secret manual, Physical Control In Care, authorises staff to ‘use an inverted knuckle into the trainee’s sternum and drive inward and upward.’ Officers at youth prisons, such as HMP Young Offenders’ Institution in Feltham, were given guidelines on how to restrain children as young as 12.

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Child refugees exposed to great danger and abuses in Europe, says UNHCR

Domiciliary Prisonoriginally published by: The Guardian
14th June 2010

A drastic increase in the number of unaccompanied minors trying to enter Europe is exposing thousands of children to severe dangers and human rights abuses, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR warned today.

Following UK government plans to set up a £4m “reintegration centre” in Afghanistan so that it can deport unaccompanied child asylum seekers to Kabul from Britain, the UNHCR warned that the measures may force children to go underground, putting them in further danger as they try to avoid the authorities.

According to the report many children consider returning to their home country both a personal failure and “a betrayal of the trust and money that their families have invested in them”.

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