The imminent deportation of a Ugandan refugee and her two sons provoked a protest outside the Home Office Immigration centre in Glasgow today. Zahra Byansi was arrested on Monday after living in the city for four years. Angry campaigners braved the wind and rain to call for her release.
Campaigners in Glasgow say that Zarah Byansi was an upstanding member of the Kingsway community and that she should be allowed to stay in Scotland.
On Monday Zarah and her two boys went to the immigration offices in Govan to sign on. They were detained, moved to Dungavel Detention Centre in Lanarkshire and today have been taken down south to Yarls Wood Immigration Removal Centre.
Noreen Real, from Kingsway Amnesty Group, said: “I went on Tuesday to visit her in Dungavel and her five year old son said to me “You know, I don’t understand because we didn’t do anything wrong. We only went with my mum to sign on and they detained us.” How can you explain to a five year old child that our government can treat human beings this way.”
Ugandan born Zarah and her children aged five and twelve have lived in the Drumchapel area of Glasgow for four years; she was well known for her campaigning for other asylum seekers.
Jamie O’Neill, from Positive Action in Housing, said: “There’s been a lot in the press about ‘The Last King of Scotland’ movie which is out this week and the Ugandan connections. Really the only connection is that we’re sending people back to the terror that they’ve escaped.”
In a statement the Home Office has said that: “The government has made it clear that it will take a robust approach to removing people from the country where they have no legal right to be here and will only return those who the asylum decision making and independent appeals processes have found do not need international protection and who can therefore return safely. We examine with great care each individual case before removal and we will not remove anyone who we believe is at risk on their return.”
The campaign against the deportation of Zahra and her family has once again brought protestors out in force but it’s hard to say if it’ll make any difference as her flights back to Uganda are booked for 17 January.
STV. Scotland Today 13/01/07
http://www.stv.tv/content/news/main/display.html?id=opencms:/news/Angry_demonstrators_call_for_the_release
