The children were released as part of efforts to decongest prisons as a prevention measure in the fight against COVID-19, and are being reunited with their parents or legal guardians.
Enforcement means that immigrants will be afraid to seek testing and medical care, and enforcement and detention puts officers and their families at risk by forcing unnecessary contact, says the ACLU.
The EU-Turkey deal has resulted in approximately 40,000 people seeking asylum being trapped in appalling conditions in the five EU ‘hotspot’ refugee camps on the Greek islands, says Oxfam.
All scheduled inspection work involving visits to prisons or other places of State detention in England and Wales has been suspended up to the end of May 2020.
A new inspection report says Border Force should ensure that children, injured detainees and those held in vehicles are treated safely, decently and in accordance with the law.
Report describes the "horrific reality" of a system which inflicts terrible suffering on those detained and causes anguish to their distraught families.