Help Sitemap Home Skip Navigation Contact Us Disability Statement


Dungavel move may herald asylum breakthrough

Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image

Published Date: 13 May 2009
By Michael Howie
AN END to locking children up in Dungavel detention centre was last night said to be a step nearer following the launch of a scheme to help failed asylum seekers return home voluntarily.
The project will see about five families of failed asylum seekers given housing and support for three months to help them plan a return to their home country.

Dedicated social workers will help identify the reasons family members do not want to re
turn and will try to overcome their fears.

This could be through helping them identify work and education opportunities in their country of origin or ensuring they can address health issues like having the correct inoculations. But if after 12 weeks families are not prepared to leave voluntarily, they will face forced removal.

The scheme, based in Glasgow's Kinning Park area, will cost £125,000-a-year and will be funded by the Scottish Government and the UK Border Agency.

The moves were yesterday welcomed by the Scottish Government as "a step towards" ending the detention of children in the Dungavel centre in Lanarkshire.

Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: "Asylum seekers must be treated fairly and humanely.

"This is at the heart of this new innovative and exciting pilot in which Scotland will lead the way for the entire UK."

Phil Taylor, the UK Border Agency's regional director in Scotland and Northern Ireland, said families were only detained as a "last resort".

"We are all committed to making that number as small as we possibly can and if we can eliminate the need for removals, so much the better," he said.

About 100 asylum-seeking families a year are refused permission to stay in Scotland. Sixty per cent go home by their own accord. The rest are usually taken to Dungavel before their return home. Dawn raids to remove failed asylum seekers are said to be happening no more than once a month.





Page 1 of 1

 
1

The Wanderer from the South,

13/05/2009 07:18:59
Wait till they just abscond and forget to give a forwarding address in the UK
2

Jim A,

13/05/2009 08:21:27
"The scheme, based in Glasgow's Kinning Park area, will cost £125,000-a-year and will be funded by the Scottish Government and the UK Border Agency.

So in reality we the taxpayer are funding this seeing how that's were the money comes from in the first place.
3

THE REAL BLOCKEM,

Glasgow 13/05/2009 09:05:50
First of all, failed asylum seekers are not ‘‘forced’’ to return to their countries of origin - if they would leave when legally informed, there would be no need to ‘‘encourage’’ them to leave, such as offering them a £3,000-£3,500 ‘‘go home’’ bribe. in passing, there are few takers for the bribe - the asylum seekers prefer to sit on their backsides in their (our) free to them furnished accommodation which they can heat for free 24 hours a day and pick up their free weekly money.

The real problem is stopping the failed asylum seekers / families from absconding once they are informed they are going back to their own countries .... Quote from a communication from the then Immigration Department:- ‘‘in a recent experiment approximately 40 families we invited to present themselves for deportation but of these, approximately 39 then disappeared and have not been seen since.’’

So the new plan is that housing will be made available for five families of failed asylum seekers .... and they will be looked after by asylum support ‘‘charities’’ .... the very same people who have assisted the failed asylum seekers to escape from immigration officers who had come to collect them for deportation! .... the very same people who provided the wee hidey-holes (flats) for the absconders (now illegal immigrants) to hide in!

And these failed asylum seeking families will be able to come and go so that any absconding should be detected early. Their escape plan (absconding) is now even easier than before .... get the family together a day or so prior to their deportation date ..... use the ‘‘come and go’’ part of the ‘‘plan’’ ..... and disappear into one of the wee prearranged hidey-holes.

Here’s my plan, round up all the legally failed asylum seekers/families and kick them out of Britain by whatever means necessary, and dismantle (stop funding) their money-guzzling lawbreaking obscene ‘‘charities’’.
4

THE REAL BLOCKEM,

Glasgow 13/05/2009 09:16:49
This latest idea is just another con to mislead the Glasgow/Scottish/British public. Here’s what’s really happening to failed asylum seekers in Scotland:
Robina Quershi, Director of Glasgow based, tax-funded ‘‘charity’’ Positive Action in Housing, set up an internet petition to the First Minister of Scotland asking an amnesty for eleven hundred (4,500 failures including dependents) legally failed asylum families in Glasgow to be allowed to stay here permanently. This petition, paid for out of our wage packets, is now lying abandoned on the internet and is being used to advertise sex aids and pornography websites. The failed asylum seeking families? - granted an amnesty by First Minister, Alex Salmond - this is illegal - asylum and immigration are not under Scottish Government control - Westminster has full control (lol) of asylum and immigration.

Google ‘‘Amnesty for Scottish asylum families’’
Click on ‘‘An amnesty for Scottish asylum families Petition’’
This brings up Petition.
Click on ‘‘View Current Signatures’’
This brings up ‘‘View Signatures’’ , click on ‘‘2906’’.
This brings up various ads including sex aids and porno sites.

We, the British taxpayer, have paid / are paying for this petition and this ‘‘charity’’ which received from the Scottish Executive, £227,393 of taxpayers’ money from 2003-2006. They also received £92,677 from Communities Scotland over a similar period. They are currently receiving £165,000 for the New Migrants Action Project, ie, The Scottish Government Equality Unit’s Race, Religion and Refugee Integration funding stream designed to improve the lives of minority ethnic and faith communities in Scotland, including refugees, asylum seekers, migrant workers and Gypsies/Travellers.

We finance this ‘‘charity’’, Glasgow based Positive Action in Housing to carry on their hostilities against our society.
5

Tartan Viking,

13/05/2009 12:43:30
"The project will see about five families of failed asylum seekers given housing and support for three months to help them plan a return to their home country."

No chance.
6

Tartan Viking,

13/05/2009 12:48:14
Can't see how people think this is a breakthrough. It's tantamount to inviting all to come over. Once over here it seems you can't really get deported. we'll end up like London. I was there recently and it felt alien to me.
7

Allan(handofgod137),

13/05/2009 14:06:23
Time to stop the nonsense and just put them on the next flight home.
8

THE REAL BLOCKEM,

Glasgow 13/05/2009 16:35:09
‘‘The project will see about five families of failed asylum seekers given housing and support for three months to help them plan a return to their home country.’’

Why do we have to give them more support. They have been living off us for years - all free. They scream asylum - they get free furnished accommodation, they pay no council tax, they pay no heating or lighting charges (the British taxpayers pay their utility bills) they receive free nursery, school and college education, free NHS treatment, free financial benefits, they give birth to more of their offspring for us to house, feed, clothe and educate. We pay their legal bills when their claims and appeals to stay here come up time and time again When they are legally told they have no right to be in Britain, they and their support groups (paid for by us) stick two fingers up at our legal decisions and they refuse point blank to leave.

Don’t give them housing and support, when they are told to get out of the country, get them and their offspring out.

The heads of their support groups, ‘‘charities’’ should be charged with the criminal offence of aiding and concealing failed asylum seekers, now illegal immigrants, now criminals on the run.
9

THE REAL BLOCKEM,

Glasgow 13/05/2009 16:43:33
Allan(handofgod137) at 7 .... ‘‘Time to stop the nonsense and just put them on the next flight home.’’

Allan, ‘‘flights home’’ don’t work, here’s what happens ....

From DAILY TELEGRAPH - 24 DECEMBER 2007.

‘‘Jacqui Smith admits asylum error.

The Home Secretary has admitted that the number of failed asylum seekers whose deportation flights are postponed because of their disruptive behaviour is almost double the figure previously released.

Jacqui Smith has apologised after stating that there had been 1,173 such cases over two years when the real figure is nearly twice as high.

It is claimed that many asylum seekers throw tantrums or become aggressive when they are to be deported in a bid to sabotage their removal by convincing air crews to have them taken off flights because they pose a danger once the flight is airborne.’’

Here’s another wee slant on flight problems to deport failed asylum seekers .... This following is a report from the Positive Action in Housing website:-
‘‘The Hazizi family who were detained on Saturday while reporting in Glasgow are due to be put on a Home Office charter flight to Albania and Kosovo on Thursday at 9am.’’

Positive Action in Housing then requests the public to assist in stopping the deportation of the Hazizi family by asking the public to ‘‘Phone Stansted Airport on 0870 000 0303 to tell them about the case and ask them to cancel the flight’’.
10

Allan(handofgod137),

13/05/2009 18:20:16
#9 I would suggest that the home offce charter planes, and load them up solely with economic migrants of the appropriate nationality, and if they want to throw a tantrum then chain them up. If the civil airlines won't wear it, then I'm sure the RAF have passenger planes.
11

Tartan Viking,

13/05/2009 18:37:42
"The project will see about five families of failed asylum seekers given housing and support for three months to help them plan a return to their home country."

That is 5 families per quarter.

Therefore - that will be sixty families per year then (5 families for 3 months each = 5 x 3 x 4 quarters).

Annual cost = £125,000

So that's £2,083 per family.

That's a lot of dosh. That works out at 35 weeks dole money for an average person out of work.

12

Tartan Viking,

13/05/2009 18:41:40
Haud on.

I've mis-read that. It's 5 families per quarter so that's 20 families £6,250 per family.

Or per year then.

At a cost of £125,000

Or 104 weeks dole money.

Goodness me.
13

THE REAL BLOCKEM,

Glasgow 13/05/2009 21:08:57
Allan(handofgod137) at 10 ....

Best and least disruption suggestion is to sedate them.

Best action is to dismantle their support groups by withdrawn public funding. No support groups - no hidey holes - they can run but they can’t hide.

 

Comment on this Story

 

In order to post comments you must Register or Sign In

 
 
RSS Feed of this article's comments
Delivery formats: RSS, Atom, Javascript & Email
 
  

 
 

More Scotland

More Scotland >>

More Immigration and refugees

More Immigration and refugees >>

Features

Paperboy Paperboy Customised news
Scottish Business Briefing Scottish Business Briefing ...Sign up today
Scotsman Hotels Scotsman Hotels

Featured Advertising



Sister Newspapers:
Press Complaints Commission

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the PCC by clicking here.