What can be done about this sad state of affairs?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....ceful-conditions.html

/// But it recommends that non-custodial, child-friendly accommodation is provided at Heathrow for families with children as a matter of urgency.’ ///

Yes and we could also do with some child-friendly accommodation providing for the some families that actually reside in Britain, and
if it is non-custodial how do they expect them not to abscond and then disappear without trace?

[Gromit]

We could run Heathrow Airport like a state of the art international travel hub and not a like a third world bus station.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

Yes, but what about the non-custodial accommodation, how do you think that could be provided?

[pdq1]

Its disgraceful they are held in such accommodation. They should be put on the next plane from where they came from.

[emmie]

what happens if they changed in transit, or that the person they may have flown with abandoned them at the airport. after all how often would you see a child on it's own on a plane, very rarely. Then of course if they don't speak the language where do you send them back to. Time to get translators in, and If they say for example somalia, then who do you send them back to if there is no adult present with them. This is so fraught with problems.

[pdq1]

em10 if any immigrant arrives on a plane at Heathrow they are not officially in this country until they have cleared customs. We know which plane they came on, from where it left and so they could be returned to that country.

For some reason we let them step over the line and pass through customs and then it becomes our problem.

[emmie]

pdq, so a ten year old on their own would be put back on a plane, if they haven't crossed that line, that doesn't seem possible.

[pdq1]

Yes they should be back home with their parents.

[emmie]

and if you don't know who those parents are.

[pdq1]

A 10 year old will be incapable of buying an airline ticket

[emmie]

i understand that, but if the child is with a guardian on the plane and then left at the airport by that person, for whatever reason, then what do you do.