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The government should stop detaining children who are awaiting deportation, the children's commissioner has said.
Sir Al Aynsley-Green's comments came as he published a report on the experiences of children at Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre.
The study called for an end to the arrest and detention of the children of failed asylum seekers.
As part of his investigation, Sir Al raised "serious concerns" about the way children are looked after.
With around 2,000 children a year held in detention centres for administrative purposes, the report set out 42 recommendations to ensure this is a "last resort".
Sir Al recommended that there should be better facilities for pregnant women and newborn children.
And babies and children with serious health problems should not have to spend time confined in UK detention centres, he suggested.
Sir Al told the BBC this morning: "I accept immediately that the government must have the authority to decide who goes and who stays.
"It is the 'how' that I am concerned about. I agree with Phil Woolas, the immigration minister, that once a family has reached the end of a legal process, they should be removed.
"But again, it is the 'how' it should be done."
He said that locking children away was "not the answer".
And he denied that families would disappear off the system if they were not detained before deportation.
"Put yourself in the place of a family with young children," he said.
"Where will they run to in this country? We need much more evidence on why these children are being locked away as well as looking to alternatives.
"We are asking the government to move towards stopping detention and starting to build on the experience they are having in Solihull for example with a much more community-based approach, so that families that arrive know at the outset that their case will be turned around quickly and they will be encouraged to return."
He added that if children did have to be locked away, then it must be a "humane process which fulfils common standards of decency".
However Woolas insisted that the report has overlooked a "vital point".
"We only detain those who refuse to comply with the decision of the independent courts and then do not leave Britain voluntarily," said the immigration minister.
"If people refuse to go home then detention becomes a necessity.
"We don't want to split up families, so we hold children with their parents, and while they are in our care we treat them with sensitivity and compassion."
He added that since the inspection took place, the government had "made even further progress, with Yarl's Wood Removal Centre praised on numerous occasions for its children's facilities".
"We now have full-time independent social workers, and a range of trained experts to monitor welfare 24 hours a day," Woolas added.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd