Meeting of the Parliament 17 June 2014
It is not often that we take part in a debate that has the words “asylum seekers and refugees” and “humane system” in the same sentence. I want to focus on the issue of showing humanity and what that means.
About 13 years ago, when I was a Unison steward, I had a briefing from Margaret Wood of the Glasgow campaign to welcome refugees, and from that moment on I was involved in the campaign. At the same time, the Scottish Refugee Council started raising awareness, and I am very proud of this Parliament and this nation for marking refugee week every year.
One thing that was drawn to my attention when I worked in social work in Glasgow was the checks that young refugees were put through to determine their age. I do not mean to be totally alarmist, but the checks would have put Nazi Germany to shame, because wrists were measured, X-rays were taken and dental work was checked in order to determine a young person’s age—instead of just speaking to them and treating them as human.
Then we had the group who were fondly known as the Glasgow girls, whom we should all be very proud of, and their campaign against dawn raids. We witnessed on our tellies almost every night the people of Drumchapel, Castlemilk, Springburn and Sighthill standing up to UK Border Agency detention vans. Women in those areas were presented with Scottish women of the year awards. That shows a different Glasgow that is humane. Was the treatment of the refugees humane? That is the question.
I turn to the issue of Dungavel. For many years I have attended vigils at Dungavel run by justice and peace organisations from Lanarkshire and Ayrshire. The detention of innocent kids in Dungavel was brought to my attention because they were put next to some of the most notorious child traffickers in the world, who were awaiting deportation. Is that humane? I do not think so.
We should remember that those children are not criminals. I say to Alison McInnes that, although the Lib Dems ended the detention of children at Dungavel, the children just get shipped to Yarl’s Wood, Colnbrook or another centre. That is not a last resort. If members just listen to the testimony of people I know, they will hear that that is not a last resort.
UK Governments of all colours have been playing top trumps to see who is the hardest on immigrants, who is the hardest on asylum seekers and who is the hardest on refugees. Some of the things that I have seen over the years make me sick to my stomach.
Successive UK Governments have refused to sign up to EU directives to protect people, whether they are on asylum, men’s violence against women and children or trafficking. We have had go home vans and adverts. How disgusting.
The UKBA determines asylum status along with trafficked status and can deny a person protection all in the one envelope. That is disgusting and is not humane.
We have people who have been forced into destitution. We had the obscene pictures on our telly of Jacqui Smith chartering a plane, rounding up women and children at Brand Street in Govan, sending them back to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo and telling them, “There, there—it’ll be all right once you’re home.”
We have the situation of young women from Moldova. Last week, we in the Parliament viewed the film “Nefarious: Merchant of Souls”. A young woman who was trafficked across Europe in horrific circumstances was brought to London. She was saved by the Poppy project, but she was denied refugee status and trafficked status and was sent back to Moldova. The decision was that she was not at risk. When she got there, the traffickers caught up with her. They abused her, beat her and did horrific things to her. A few months later, where was she? She was trafficked back to London. Is that humane? No.
Having an independent Scotland is one way to change that. We can have a humane system—a new asylum model that separates immigration from people who seek sanctuary. One of the most disgusting things about the process is the fact that people conflate those things, which dehumanises the individuals who are involved.
I want a system that provides protection, shows compassion and gives people dignity and support. I want a Scottish asylum agency that is underpinned by all those values and based on human rights. That is humane. That is the kind of Scotland that I want to live in.
15:57