The Lib Dems’ Layla Moran on her fight to stop juveniles being detained Child detention of asylum seekers is a scar on our society that campaigners have fought against for years. It is not something you can believe exists in modern-day Britain. Can you imagine your child being locked up, without access to education, sometimes for months or years?

The Coalition Government claims to have addressed this, with Home Office policy stating it only happens in exceptional circumstances, and ‘usually for not more than 24 hours’. But this is not the end of the fight as child detention has not stopped entirely. And — shockingly — it happens right here in Oxfordshire.

Home Office figures released a few weeks ago showed that earlier this year a boy was held in Campsfield House detention centre, Kidlington, for between two and three months.

He was not in school, had little interaction with other children and led anything but a normal childhood. Why? Because of a decision he did not, nor was he even old enough, to make.

The case of the child at Campsfield House [the juvenile held at the Kidlington detention centre this year] is a stark reminder that we must remain vigilant in our fight to protect human dignity.

How could we ever justify locking up a child for these reasons and in these conditions for any amount of time, never mind two to three months?

Asylum-seekers are already vulnerable and we have a duty of care towards them. We must show compassion in these cases. I have written to the Home Secretary about this shocking case, and asked for assurances that there are no other ‘exceptional circumstances’ in this country the rest of us don’t know about. Nick Clegg’s office is also looking into it.

Even when asylum seekers’ applications are successful, they can struggle to integrate with the wider community or even access services we all value so highly, like the NHS or the legal system. So what more can be done?

In 2011, Keith Mitchell, the then Conservative leader of Oxfordshire County Council, suggested stopping council documents being available in different languages as it did not encourage people to learn the language of the country. It is in our interest as a community to help those who need it most, and it is true that one of the best ways to do just that is to give people opportunities to learn English. But denying them access to council information just builds barriers rather than breaks them down.

I spoke to a local charity recently. It gives free English lessons in Oxford. Excellent, you may say.

Except that, despite demonstrable demand and an oversubscription of volunteer teachers, the team is running under capacity as they can’t find enough spaces to teach in. They said they had little support from the county council which has told them that if schools, for example, have free classrooms, they must be hired out or not used.

I urge the council to proactively support such enterprises. Doing so would pay not just financial, but more essentially, social dividends. It is clear in the case of both asylum seekers and those whose applications have been granted that there is still much to be done. I remain proud that in 2010, Liberal Democrats fought for the Coalition Agreement to include ending child detention for immigration purposes. And I am determined to continue working towards this goal. At the next election I will be fighting for a fairer society that enables everyone, no matter their background and whatever their circumstances, to get on in life.

But a single example — such as the youngster at Campsfield — reminds us that we still have a long way to go.

Layla Moran is the Liberal Democrats’ Parliamentary Spokesman for Oxford West and Abingdon