The present publication is intended to give voice to children who are detained at the border or in immigration detention with their families. This publication will give these children a voice, in accordance with article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which dictates that children should have a voice in ‘all actions that concern children’. The stories of children and their parents who, though innocent, reside in a Dutch cell, speak volumes. They reveal how imprisonment affects a child’s fundamental sense of safety.
For this publication, eight families have been interviewed. Four were interviewed about their experiences in border detention and the other four about their experiences in immigration detention. These eight families consist of a total of twelve parents and nineteen children. In addition, the lawyers of six different families have filled out an extensive survey at the
time these families were in border detention. These surveys were also used for this publication. These six other families consist of a total of eight parents and seven children. The stories of these children and their parents illustrate and stress the concerns for children in immigration detention as mentioned above by the No Child in Detention Coalition