Hi Everyone!
And thanks so much for keeping going on this, it's so important.
Myself and Alison Blenkinsop did go to a meeting at Yarl's Wood, with UK Border Agency, and also present were Serco health care staff, and Serco admin people.
They wouldn't agree with us, to allow us to quote anything said, or name who was present. This is why we've not passed on the meeting details - there is little to be said.
UK Border Agency did accept that it was a breakdown in communication, that the formula had run out. And that this would not happen again. Other than that, nothing was said. No apology was given. No acceptance that it was wrong to give the baby oral hydration sachets etc. Nothing further to report, in fact.
Whenever we tried to agree a wording on other things that were said, we were shouted down, and nothing was agreed.
So that family have not received an apology, and there has been no acceptance that anything was 'wrong' in feeding the baby oral hydration sachets.
This is being pursued in other areas, via lawyers, and so there is nothing more to say.
Baby C and her Mum and siblings, are happily settled in a new home, although many many miles from where they had been settled. They were released into a hostel initially, but are now in a two bedroom ground floor flat.
Baby C is thriving, and Mum has a HUGE stockpile of the specialist formula, in case UK Border Agency picks them back up and ships them back to Yarl's Wood. Baby has regained the weight loss from Yarl's Wood.
As those of you who know something of Yarl's Wood, no one is supposed to be in there at all, unless their legal case is played out completely, and they should be there for only a couple of days prior to flights. But Mum had three separate 'attempts' to remove her and the children, in the two plus months they spent in there. They do now have an excellent immigration lawyer (they had none before) and her legal case is still being processed. Although as there is no specialist formula in the African country they wish to deport her too, sending the baby back would be a death sentance.
Many hopes about the conditions in Yarl's Wood are pinned upon the upcoming report into the conditions of children in there, by Al Aynsley-Green, the Children's Commissioner. He reports next month, I think.
He has already commented in the New Stateman's current campaing - No Place For Children. There is a huge amount of detail about Yarl's Wood and children, on the site:
www.newstatesman.com/subjects/no-place-for-children
As for the troublesome internetty... some of the MPs who wrote, repled to their constituents, that there was only a fuss, as it had been on the internet.
In other words, there had only been a fuss, as mothers knew about it!
You couldn't make it up...