Twenty-five young people have been detained in the centre since 2010, The Scotsman reports.

Dungavel is used to house people seeking asylum in the UK as well as those being processed for deportation. The Scottish government said the “barbaric” system “must end now” and that “Scotland wants nothing to do with this”.

In 2010, the then-home secretary, Damian Green, said that he was “committed to ending the detention of all children for immigration purposes”. In May that year the Home Office said under-18s would no longer be held at Dungavel.

Data from the SNP shows that 25 children aged 17 or under have been kept at the centre since 2010. Five were detained in 2021 and the last was detained in 2022.

The SNP also obtained figures showing that more than 7,500 lone child asylum seekers were subjected to waits of more than a year for a first decision on their asylum claim. Of those, 57 had to wait more than five years for a decision.

SNP MSP for East Kilbride Collette Stevenson said: “It has been over a decade since the Tories promised that vulnerable children would no longer be held at the barbaric Dungavel Detention Centre – another broken promise from this cruel Westminster government.

“Innocent and potentially vulnerable children should not be detained behind barbed wire fences. This is a total moral failure and must end now. Scotland wants nothing to do with this.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Children under the age of 18 are not routinely detained at Dungavel IRC. In some cases, individuals without documentary evidence of their age are detained as adults and subsequently claim to be children.

“When this occurs, they will be released into the care of social services until a further assessment of their age has been made, unless their physical appearance and demeanour very strongly suggests that they are significantly over 18.”