Ms Hyslop said children should not be "locked up" at Dungavel

Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop met Home Office minister, Liam Byrne, on Thursday to discuss asylum issues.

The SNP administration is opposed to family detention but responsibility for immigration lies with the government at Westminster.

Ms Hyslop said it had been a very "constructive and positive" meeting.

She has been invited on fact-finding mission to see how alternatives to locking up young asylum seekers are being developed south of the border.

Pilot projects

The English pilots are being run in conjunction with non-government organisations.

They work with families to help them plan for their return home without needing to detain them in immigration removal centres like Dungavel.

Ms Hyslop said: "The Minister of State committed to respond to our request to stop families and children being detained in Dungavel.

"I look forward to working with him and colleagues to end this practice."

There are about 1,400 asylum-seeking families in Scotland, with most of them Glasgow-based.

The Dungavel detention centre housed 122 children in the first 11 months of 2006.