Campaigners staged a protest today against the detention of a failed asylum seeker and her young son.
Fatou Felicite Gaye, 38, and four-year-old Arouna are being held at Dungavel detention centre in South Lanarkshire following an early morning raid at a property in Sighthill, Glasgow, yesterday.
Such detentions have drawn widespread criticism in t
he past and today around 20 people held a demonstration outside the UK Border Agency office in the city's Brand Street.
Protesters from the Unity Centre, a Glasgow-based asylum seeker support group, held placards and posters which read 'End detention now' and 'We demand justice'.
Campaigners have described the manner in which the family, from the Ivory Coast, were detained as "heavy-handed".
And an MSP hit out at the fact that a young child was being held in Dungavel, branding the move "an absolute disgrace".
The UK Border Agency insisted all removals were undertaken with "extreme care".
The Unity Centre also pointed out that the raid came days after a pilot project was announced in the city to encourage failed asylum seekers to return home voluntarily.
The campaign group said the pair are due to be deported on Monday.
It is understood Ms Gaye has had a string of appeals to stay in the UK rejected.
Unity said in a statement: "The dawn raid, the first to be carried out in Glasgow for almost a year, was carried out only days after the Home Office announced the start of a pilot project designed to prevent the need to detain asylum-seeking families at all."
The group went on: "Only on Tuesday this week, Fatou had been to report at the Home Office and campaigners at Unity are wondering why on earth the Home Office decided to use such heavy-handed and unnecessary tactics to detain Fatou."
SNP MSP Christina McKelvie, whose constituency covers Dungavel, branded the detention of a child at the centre "an absolute disgrace".
She said: "It has never been right to detain a child in Dungavel and there is no excuse for the UK Government's actions.
"This is a clear and disgraceful breach of Jim Murphy's promise to end the detention of children and breaks the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child."
She went on: "The UK Government are detaining a child born in Scotland in an immigration centre that is not fit for children.
"This is an absolute disgrace."
It is understood that officials from the agency arrived at the property where Ms Gaye was staying at around 6.45am yesterday.
She is believed to have been informed by letter before the raid.
It is understood that Ms Gaye had an asylum claim rejected in 2005 and has since had five more appeals refused.
A UK Border Agency spokesman said: "Individuals who have been found by our trained case owners and the independent courts to not be in need of international protection are expected to return home.
"The UK Border Agency always prefers people to leave the UK voluntarily rather than have their return enforced but, where an enforced removal is necessary, family enforcement visits are undertaken with extreme care, allowing as much time as possible for packing and for everything to be clearly explained."
Officers are instructed not to conduct raids before 6.30am, the spokesman added.
The initiative to help failed asylum seekers return home voluntarily was announced by the Scottish Government on Tuesday.
The scheme will be piloted next month in Glasgow and it has been claimed the project could reduce the number of "dawn raids".
