CAMPAIGNERS gathered outside the Indian high commission in London yesterday to demand an end to children of families from the global South being taken into state care.

The action by the Support Not Separation (SNS) group coincided with mothers and campaigners in India calling on governments attending the G20 summit in New Delhi to stop the “industry” of child removal.

Protesters handed in an open letter from retired judges in India appealing to the G20 to address the increasing number of children taken from immigrant families living and working in the global North.

Some placards at the action read: “Take away our poverty, not our children” and “Disabled mums are not ‘unfit,’ we just need support.”

Campaigners said that family courts in Britain and other developed countries are taking children away from their mothers, especially the women are single, on a low income, immigrants, disabled or domestic violence survivors.

SNS said in a statement: “We know from experience that the family court process which forcibly removes our children is sexist, racist and class-ridden.

“We are outraged but not surprised that children taken from immigrant families are not even being repatriated to India, where they could be cared for by their extended family.

“We know families who are facing this in the UK.”

The group said that children “need and have a right to the protection of their mother or other primary carer.

“To break that bond is not only to inflict lifelong trauma but to make children vulnerable to every form of abuse in institutional ‘care,’” it added.

“We cannot forget the long history of children of indigenous communities being forcibly removed — in Australia, Canada, the US, for example — as well as the children of single mothers in Britain and Ireland.

“What is happening today is a continuation of this sexist, racist horror and must be stopped.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in New Delhi for the summit and met local children during a visit to the British Council office in the Indian capital.

He said that this weekend’s meeting of leaders of the richest countries would focus on putting pressure on Russia over its blockade of grain exports from Ukraine.