A FOUR-YEAR-OLD girl has been booted out of Scotland by asylum chiefs after spending a record 86 days in detention – even though she was born here.
Terrified Ericka Andrew was snatched with mum Tracey in a dawn raid on her home, treated as an asylum seeker and sent to Nigeria by the Home Office.
Her ordeal is revealed days after the European Union urged UK authorities to consider “drastically limiting” the policy of holding people in detention centres.
Bill Ramsay, minister at Ericka and Tracey’s church, said: “She has never known any home other than Scotland.
“It’s not any different from grabbing any other Scottish child, locking them up then flying them to a foreign country.”
Tracey, 26, and Ericka were snatched from their home in Glasgow’s Maryhill in June. Tracey was to sit her final healthcare exams that day.
They were locked up in the notorious Dungavel detention centre, a former prison in Lanarkshire, for three weeks before being transferred to the Yarl’s Wood facility in Bedfordshire.
Despite lodging an appeal, the pair were flown to Africa at 6.30am on August 28.
It was revealed last year that families were being held alongside foreign criminals at Dungavel.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate for Education published a report earlier this year stating facilities for children were only suitable for a maximum of two weeks’ detention.
Reverend Ramsay, of Gairbraid Parish Church in Maryhill, said: “I wouldn’t treat a dog like that, much less a child.
“Ericka was kept in detention longer than any other child her age – it’s disgraceful.
“Our congregation hoped that because Ericka was born here, they would be sympathetic.”
Tracey fled Nigeria aged 21 after becoming pregnant by a Muslim man. She was rejected by her Christian family, threatened by her lover’s relatives and feared for her life.
A week after arriving in the UK, she was persuaded to use a false passport to get to Canada but was held at London Gatwic airport.
She spent two months in jail then moved to Glasgow, giving birth to Ericka soon after.
The Rev Ramsay said: “I visited them in Dungavel and it was one of the most distressing experiences ofmy life. Tracey made a mistake but she was pregnant, alone, terrified and didn’t understand UK law.
“But she made amends and would have been a useful member of society. There are foreign nationals who have committed much more serious crimes who have been allowed to stay in Britain.
“Ericka was a lovely girl who captured the hearts of everybody. It’s beyond understanding the Home Office has done this.”
Tracey was refused permission to stay due to her criminal record. Immigration rules are reserved to Westminster but the Scottish Government has demanded an end to dawn raids and child detention.
A spokesman said: “We are looking with key partners at a Scottish model of an alternative to detention.”
The Home Office Border Agency said: “In most cases, children are within our detention estate for less than seven days. We take the welfare of children very seriously.”
Children’s Commissioner Kathleen Marshall said: “Early morning removals are extremely intrusive and frightening for children and detention can cause lasting damage to their health and wellbeing. I will continue to argue for alternatives.”
‘I wouldn’t treat a dog like that, much less a child’
Rev Bill Ramsay
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r.hainey@sundaymail.co.uk
http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/09/21/four-year-old-girl-caged-as-refugee-for-86-days-despite-being-scottish-78057-20745777/
The thugs of the Home Office Border Agency clearly do not “take the welfare of children very seriously.”
The facts of this 4 year-old speak for themselves. The Home Office Border Agency are clearly attempting to perpetrate what in other circumstances would be called abuse of a minor.
If anybody from theHome Office Border Agency wishes to dispute this with me they could very easily do so by explaining exactly how detaining a child under such dangerous and distressing conditions is in the interest of the child.
No surprise considering their previous abysmal human-rights record.