By Dominic Casciani BBC News Online community affairs reporter

If you are fleeing political persecution, the last thing you probably expect is to be detained at the other end.

But the latest asylum statistics reveal the use of detention is rising, even though many of the 970 currently being held have not yet been deemed suitable for deportation.

Among that number are families. It's impossible to know how many children are being held because there are no regular statistics. The most recent figure, in answer to a parliamentary question in April, was 56 children.

One of those children was the nine-month-old son of Paulo, an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK more than a year ago.

He and his wife and child were recently released from two months in detention after being taken away because they were apparently at risk of absconding.

This puzzles Paulo because they were arrested when they went to make a regular reporting appearance before immigration authorities.

People from my country think Britain, Canada and the USA are places which would help those facing persecution - we began our journey believing we would be treated fairly by the British people Paulo, asylum seeker

Paulo, still in his twenties, says he escaped political persecution from a sub-Saharan African country.

He had begun to write about what was going on in his homeland and suddenly found himself jailed by the authorities.

While inside, he witnessed other prisoners being abused and was in no doubt he was next.

He asked us not to publicise the details of his story but it is consistent with human rights reports from the same country.

However, irrespective of whether or not it is a well-founded case, campaigners ask whether it is right to lock up children because of the immigration status of their parents.

"When we realised we had to flee, we immediately thought of England," said Paulo.

"People from my country think Britain, Canada and the USA are places which would help those facing persecution. We began our journey believing we would be treated fairly by the British people."

After claiming asylum, Paulo and his wife were housed in a northern city. They later found out she was pregnant and a baby boy was born last summer.

A little later, their claim was rejected, but they were given three months to prepare an appeal. It was at one of the regular reporting appointments during this period that they were detained.

Family separated

"All of a sudden the immigration authorities separated us and sent us to different detention centres. We simply did not know what was going on.

DETENTION IN THE UK 970 asylum seekers (March 03) 56 children (Apr 03) 150 family spaces 2000 total spaces

"Three days later I was told I was to be deported. I was asking where they had taken my wife and son and they said nothing."

It was only after prolonged protest hours before the expected deportation that they were reunited and moved to a detention centre with family units.

Paulo says that during the next two months, his son developed eczema and became increasingly distressed.

"We felt the detention centre was not offering the proper food for a child of his age," said Paulo. "At one point we were forcing him to eat because he was rejecting his food.

"I have heard people suggest that asylum seekers are being offered some kind of five-star treatment in these centres. Yet they are being run like a prison by people who are trained to deal with criminals, not people who are claiming asylum."

Much to Paulo's surprise, he was released last month when the human rights charity Bail for Immigration Detainees (Bid) won a hearing on his behalf. He had to wait a further day for his family to be released.

"The way they have treated my family has caused us great distress," said Paulo.

Controversial policy

There are currently 150 spaces for families in the detention system.

Immigration minister Beverly Hughes has defended the UK's decision to break with international convention on the detention of children.

She says the numbers held are very small and most of whom are only held for a matter of hours.

"There are a very small number of families who it is necessary to detain," she recently told BBC Radio Four's Woman's Hour (see link on right).

"The evidence is the history of some of these families who are likely to abscond."

DETAINING CHILDREN It is a disgrace that young children from perhaps the age of five to 14 are held in a prison environment and are deprived of many of the rights that are enshrined in the Declaration of Human Rights Bishop John Mone, Scotland Bishops condemn asylum 'disgrace'

But, according to Sarah Cutler of Bid, children are being held in detention with their parents for indefinite periods.

In two recent cases, Bid identified families who were detained for more than 150 days. The conclusion they reached, she said, was the families were a soft target for immigration officials choosing who to detain.

Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons, has also criticised the policy, saying children must not be detained for more than seven days.

In Scotland, the Catholic church is heading a campaign against family detention at the Dungavel centre.

"Locking up children is one of the most shocking human rights abuses in the UK," said Ms Cutler.

"It is our experience that detention is imposed arbitrarily and it is immoral. The needs of children cannot be met in prison conditions."

Paulo does not yet know if he will win his case, but his English is improving and he hopes to train for the IT industry.

"I want to find a way to build a new life to provide for my son and my wife. I feel I have wasted time when I should be doing all I can for them."