Latest News from Positive Action in Housing

by Wendy Miller

MORE than 1000 people have joined the fight to allow a family of asylum seekers to live in their adopted Glasgow home.

Concerned families in Cardonald want Ignatius Massey, 41, his son Sharon, 13, and daughter Ruth, 11, to be given the right to stay permanently in the South Side community.

Hopes are high that the community campaign will pay off after the family were released from a detention centre at the weekend.

They are now back in Cardonald’s Tarfside Oval awaiting a review of their case.

Their release comes just days after local people gathered more than 1000 signatures for a petition which is now with the UK government’s Immigration Minister Liam Byrne.

Initially taken to Dungavel detention centre, the terrified family were later transported to another centre in England to await deportation to Pakistan.

But their friends and neighbours in Cardonald insisted they should be set free, and their application reconsidered.

South Side campaigner Brendan Gill who has visited Ignatius and the kids in Dungavel says they have suffered enough and deserve to live in a community where they feel safe.

Attacked by Muslim extremists in their Pakistani home, Ruth was burned on the leg with a hot iron. She was just nine years old at the time.

Two days after the horror incident the children’s mother Severine suffered a brain haemorrhage and died.

Mr Gill, 60, said “This is a man who has already lost his wife and seen his daughter being attacked.

“They wanted to send them back to Pakistan where they have been persecuted just for being Christians.

“Ignatius is a quiet man who wants only the best for his children. He is very well-respected in this community.

“An appeal had been lodged with the Court of Session and we are hoping and praying this is successful.”

The petition, signed by 1000 Cardonald residents, calls for the family to be allowed to remain in the community permanently. It was organised by the local Justice and Peace Group.

Since moving to Tarfside Oval last May the Masseys have become fully-integrated members of the community.

Ruth is a pupil of Cardonald Primary while her brother Sharon is at Lourdes Secondary and the family worship at Our Lady of Lourdes Church.

They fled their home in Karachi, after enduring years of religious persecution at the hands of Muslim extremists.

The Justice and Peace Group operate Cardonald volunteer project The Friendship Cafe where each Tuesday asylum seekers and refugees from Pakistan, Congo and other countries meet friends there and get legal and financial advice.

Publication date 22/04/08