CHILDREN held at Dungavel detention centre are being deported when efforts are made to have their cases taken up under Scotland's child protection laws.

Critics are now claiming that referring young people held at the controversial former prison to the children's reporter system appears to result in deportations being fast-tracked.

Six children held at the centre for asylum seekers have been referred, but not one of the cases was investigated because of Home Office intervention.

Campaigners for the rights of asylum seekers are now demanding that once a referral is made to the reporter under Scottish legislation, the Home Office should put any deportation decision on hold.

Christine Grahame, the SNP MSP, said: "If this is coincidence it is extraordinary. Six referrals and six deportations.

It is wrong in principle."

Robina Qureshi of the campaigning group Positive Action in Housing said: "The children should not be removed from this country while investigation has been requested. This whole thing strikes me as sinister. The Home Office appears to want to avoid embarrassment under any terms."

The typical period families have been held at Dungavel has tended to be between two and four weeks, but the process can take longer. Ms Qureshi said that when cases were publicised or became controversial "the whole effort is to move them on to avoid embarrassment".

Guidelines say the children's reporter must begin an investigation within three weeks of a referral, but this can then take up to 12 weeks to complete.

In March Ms Grahame asked Peter Peacock, the children's minister, how many children held at Dungavel were referred to the reporter. He confirmed that six children had been referred but none proceeded to a hearing "as a result of those investigations".

She said: "In fact none of those children were referred to a hearing because all six were deported along with their families before the children's reporter had time to complete their investigations."

A spokeswoman for the executive said: "There is no question of any collusion between us and the Home Office, as Christine Grahame has been suggesting."

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "Detention of families is kept to the minimum period, subject to frequent and rigorous review, and very few families are detained for more than just a few days."

But Ms Grahame said that during the period in question children had been held for long periods at Dungavel, and recent reports indicated that youngsters were once more being held there routinely.

She claimed that despite guidance being sought from ministers by Alan Miller, the former principal reporter, on the "welfare and development needs" of children held at Dungavel none had been forthcoming.

A prisons inspectorate report has recommended that "regular and independent" assessments be made of child welfare and development needs at Dungavel.

Ms Grahame said: "It is patently clear that they have adopted a policy of quickly deporting children referred to the children's reporter on the sole premise of saving ministerial blushes rather than protecting the welfare and interests of the child.

"The detention of children in a prison environment is wholly unacceptable in a civil society and the actions of this government are frankly deplorable."