The children were held with their parents at Yarl’s Wood immigration centre The detention of two children of failed asylum seekers at Yarl’s Wood immigration centre in Bedfordshire has been ruled unlawful by the High Court.
Asylum seekers Reetha Suppiah, from Malaysia, and Nigerian Sakinat Bello said the detention of their children could cause them serious harm.
The pair were arrested in February 2009 and detained with their children for between 12 and 17 days.
Government lawyers argued the detention of families was “workable and lawful”.
Ms Suppiah, 37, and Ms Bello, 25, were both refused asylum and detained along with their children after UK Border Agency raids on their homes.
BBC News correspondent Dominic Casciani, at the High Court, said: “The judge did not rule that the detention of families was in principle unlawful, only that it had been wrong in these instances.”
He added: “The two families were detained prior to the coalition government’s decision to close the family unit for failed asylum seekers as part of its commitment to end the detention of children.
“But the judgement paves the way for the claimants to sue for damages.”
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