The U.S. is not the only country that detains asylum seekers.  Nor is it the only country where asylum seekers allege abuses during detention.  Four female asylum seekers in Great Britain have brought suit claiming that they were abused at that country’s Yarl’s Woods detention center, a 405-bed detention facility for women and families.  The Guardian reports that the four women allege physical and sexual abuse, separation of children from parents, and poor living conditions resulting in illness:

Last month, the High Court ruled that it would hear the women’s claims, a development that means the Home Office will be obliged to demonstrate in open court how Yarl’s Wood complies with the UK’s obligation to asylum seekers and to defend the centre against charges that its treatment of asylum-seeking women and children constitutes a “systematic disregard for human dignity.”

For its part, the Home Office maintains that all four “have attacked and abused our staff,” and that “Yarl’s Wood is a well run centre with highly professional and caring staff.” Earlier this year, the facility was the scene of a hunger strike to protest the long periods of detention for women and children at the center. A recent report from the UK Children’s Commissioner found that children held at Yarl’s Woods face “extremely distressing” arrest and transportation procedures, and are subjected to prolonged and sometimes repeated periods of detention.  The report further noted that healthcare problems include a failure to assess “even at an elementary level” the general psychological well being of a child on arrival and a failure to recognise psychological harm when faced with dramatic changes in a child’s behaviour.  Britain detains about 1,000 children per year at the Yarl’s Woods detention center.