Dungavel was opened as a detention centre in September 2001

Bishop of Paisley John Mone has been at the forefront of calls to close the family unit at Dungavel Detention Centre, near Strathaven in Lanarkshire.

Bishop Mone, who is president of the Catholic Church's Justice and Peace Commission, presented Mr Blunkett with a petition bearing 21,000 names on Wednesday.

The church has mounted a Scotland-wide campaign against the detention of asylum seekers' children at the Lanarkshire facility, which opened in September 2001.

We are not fortress Britain, but we cannot simply allow everyone who seeks a better life to come here David Blunkett Home Secretary

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Blunkett said: "Detention, while regrettable, is an essential part of effective immigration control - to affect removal, establish identity or prevent absconding.

"Where it is necessary to detain individuals with children, we believe it is better that the children remain with their parents rather than split up the family.

"Where families are detained, they are accommodated in specially-designed family accommodation.

"It is essential that we have properly managed immigration and asylum systems which lets into the country only those who are entitled to be here and protects only those who are genuinely fleeing persecution."

'Detention inhumane'

He added that in many asylum cases, detention was the only solution.

"We are not fortress Britain, but we cannot simply allow everyone who seeks a better life to come here.

"Where people seek to abuse our immigration controls the Government must take the necessary steps to remove them - in some cases, this will include detention."

It is thought that children account for about a quarter of the 80 people currently detained at the Dungavel centre.

This has outraged MSPs, human rights groups and church leaders, who have branded the practice inhumane.

Bishop Mone, the president of the Catholic Church's Justice and Peace Commission, met with Mr Blunkett in London.

He first wrote to the home secretary seeking a meeting in March after a visit to Dungavel.