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ALEX SALMOND has blasted the home secretary on the UK’s asylum policy, accusing the government of trampling on asylum seekers’ rights by raiding families at dawn and locking them up in Dungavel detention centre.

The Sunday Herald has obtained letters between Scottish ministers and Westminster over asylum issues under the Freedom of Information Act. MSP Fiona Hyslop, secretary for education and lifelong learning, had been in correspondence with MP Liam Byrne, minister of state, about the treatment of failed asylum seekers.

In one letter dated May 20, she asks Byrne to clarify his position on why some families had been refused leave to remain in this country.
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“Our understanding was that only those families involved in criminality or fraud would be refused leave, but it appears that some have been refused simply for having failed to report to the Home Office. To many this will not be recognisable as either criminality or fraud.”

On June 6, Byrne replied saying that families “in the main … do not fulfil the criteria that would allow the UK Border Agency to permit a grant. This will include families who have not abided by the laws of the UK by absconding and failing to report as required.”

Byrne said that if a family did not return to their home country voluntarily, “enforced removal will be considered as a last resort”.

The first minister wrote a strongly worded letter to Jacqui Smith on June 24 saying he was “deeply concerned” about families who have been refused leave to remain. He wrote: “A decision that they do not have a legitimate claim for asylum in the UK combined with their understandable reluctance to leave voluntarily should not allow us to trample on their rights as individuals.”

A furious Salmond said it is “with increasing anger” that he had learned of families being raided at dawn and forcibly removed from their homes and “locked up in Dungavel”.

The Sunday Herald reported in May that early-morning raids had returned to Scotland despite the Scottish government’s clear opposition to the practice. Zodwa Mbali, a South African single mother, said eight immigration officers dragged her and her six-year-old son from her home in Drumchapel, Glasgow, and took them to Yarl’s Wood detention centre near Bedford. Bridget O’Koro from Nigeria and her three-year-old daughter Osa were also taken by immigration officers to Yarl’s Wood.

Salmond said he had “a number of concerns about how recent enforced removals have taken place”.

Reports of between eight and 10 officers being used to detain single mothers struck him as “heavy handed”. He has asked for Smith to explain why home detentions are only carried out in the mornings. “Surely it is possible to pick up a single mother and pre-school child at other times,” he said.

An SNP insider told the Sunday Herald the party was becoming “increasingly concerned” by the recent actions of the Home Office in resuming dawn raids and detaining children in Dungavel.

“The Scottish government feels like they have made some progress in this area and we are very concerned about lapsing back into the old bad habits.”

Patrick Harvie, Green MSP, said Salmond’s critics will accuse him of “playing party politics” with the asylum issue. “They’ll say he’s kicking up a fuss and trying to pick a fight, but I think it’s perfectly reasonable for the First Minister to seek the UK government on these matters.

“There should be nothing like Dungavel in this country and I think the letter is encouraging as it shows this government is willing to pursue the Home Office on this issue.”

John Wilkes, chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council, said it was “deeply concerned” by the detention and removal of children.

“It is hard to believe this exists in a 21st-century Scotland. We have condemned it, as have the Scottish government and Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People.

“The UK government has signed up to protect the rights of children under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, but shamefully except for children in the asylum and immigration system.”

Wilkes said the SRC is in discussions with the Scottish government and UK Border Agency over alternatives to detention, but as yet nothing has been drawn up or confirmed.

A Home Office spokeswoman confirmed it had received the letter and that a response would be written to the first minister in due course.

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2392779.0.westminster_blasted_over_rights_of_asylum_seekers.php

A South African university graduate who faced deportation from Scotland because of a visa mix-up has won her battle to stay after a campaign led by her local church.

Josie Pasane, 25, arrived in the UK seven years ago with her mother and sister but, unlike them, did not apply for an extended visa because of what she claims was mistaken advice from immigration officials that she should apply at a later date.

She was ordered to leave the country by the UK Border Agency and later had an appeal against the decision turned down. However, after a meeting with officials from the agency in Glasgow yesterday she will be granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

The U-turn follows a campaign involving her church congregation in Broughty Ferry, near Dundee, and politicians. It was supported by Dundee Council. A petition signed by more than 3500 people calling for her to be allowed to remain in Scotland had earlier been handed to Immigration Minister Liam Byrne.

Ron Ferguson, The Herald columnist and religious affairs commentator who supported the campaign, last night welcomed what he called a “common sense” decision.

However, he added: “It does make you wonder about the number of cases in which there is no-one to speak up on behalf of those going through such circumstances.”

Dundee MP Stewart Hosie said: “It is fantastic news for her and the family and I hope now they can get on with their lives.

“I understand the Home Office apologised to the family for any misunderstandings. I don’t think the Home Office could have failed to recognise the feelings of the community through the petition.”

Ms Pasane is expected to receive written confirmation of the decision in days. The family arrived in the UK in 2001 and they settled in Broughty Ferry, where mother Catherine Pasane works as a charge nurse with the elderly.

Josie went on to get a degree from Abertay University and her younger sister, Mammie, 22, is studying at Edinburgh University.

In 2004, the family decided to apply for permanent residence in Britain. They claim officials advised them if Mammie and her mother went through the £500-each process there and then, Josie could defer her application until her visa ran out in 2008.

Josie’s application was refused in January this year. The family took their case to an Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in Glasgow in May but the immigration judge found he was not in a position in law to allow the appeal.

He did acknowledge that she had proven herself to be an “excellent member of society” and said it would take Home Office “discretion” to allow her to stay.

At the tribunal, a Home Office representative acknowledged that if she had made her application at the relevant time, it was likely it would have succeeded.

Following the hearing, Ms Pasane said: “I feel wonderful, knowing that I’ll be able to stay with my mum and my sister. It’s been a great day.

“Even people who did not know me have given me their support - that’s just amazing.”

She confirmed officials offered their apologies during the hearing.

The UK Border Agency said it could not comment on individual cases.

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2390027.0.Graduate_wins_right_to_stay_in_UK_after_visa_error.php

The threat of deportation has been lifted from more than 10,000 Zimbabwean asylum-seekers while Robert Mugabe remains in power.

The Government signalled the U-turn after The Independent revealed last month that ministers had provoked outrage by preparing to resume deportations to Zimbabwe if they won a long-running court battle over the issue.

Gordon Brown said yesterday that “no one is being forced to return to Zimbabwe from the United Kingdom at this time”, while the Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman promised MPs: “There will not be any forced removals to Zimbabwe during the current situation.”

Today, campaigners will call for the Government to grant Zimbabweans given formal leave to remain in Britain the right to work and support themselves. Senior figures including the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, will call for an end to the limbo facing thousands of Zimbabweans, whose asylum claims have failed and are waiting for the end of test cases to determine whether they are sent back to their homeland.

The Government had faced fury by publicly condemning the Mugabe regime at the same time as pressing ahead with legal moves that would allow it to deport thousands of Zimbabwean failed asylum-seekers.

No 10 said last month that it “expects shortly to be in a position to enforce the return of those unsuccessful Zimbabwean asylum-seekers who have been found not to need the protection of the UK yet refuse to leave voluntarily”.

Amnesty International UK’s campaigns director Tim Hancock said: “Zimbabweans and others who have been refused asylum are being treated inhumanely. Many are reduced to poverty – forced to scavenge for food; to go without vital medicines even after suffering torture.” The Refugee Council said Zimbabwean asylum-seekers were being “left to rot”. Its chief executive, Donna Covey, said: “It is utter hypocrisy for the Prime Minister to be talking about his ‘revulsion’ at Mugabe’s treatment of his people, when brave men and women who’ve had to escape to the UK after standing up for human rights and democracy in Zimbabwe are being left homeless and hungry as a direct result of his Government’s shameful policies.”

Damian Green, the Conservatives’ immigration spokesman, said Zimbabweans were still receiving letters threatening them with deportation. “This shows that whatever ministers say in public is not filtering through to officials at the UK Borders Agency,” he said. “As a result unnecessary stress in being caused to Zimbabweans living in Britain.”

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesman, added: “On one hand, the Government insists there will be no removals but on the other, [it] continues to pursue the matter through the courts and Zimbabweans continue to languish in detention centres.”

In a separate development the Home Office confirmed it would halt deportations of Darfuri asylum-seekers pending a court challenge to Home Office guidelines allowing them to be sent back to the Sudanese capital Khartoum. The announcement came after The Independent revealed on Monday that deportations to the troubled state had been resumed, despite warnings that asylum-seekers face arrest, torture or death if they return.

Plight of the failed asylum-seekers

Darfur

The Government lifted its ban on deporting asylum-seekers to Darfur this month despite warnings of widespread murder and torture of dissidents. Deportees say they were detained for months and beaten. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says Darfuris returned to Khartoum face torture or death, and campaigners say attacks by rebels near Khartoum made all Darfuris in the capital vulnerable to persecution. Deportation of Darfuris to Sudan stopped last year as the Home Office fought a legal battle with protest groups. The Government promised to halt removals while it reviewed new evidence.

Zimbabwe

The Home Office has been engaged in a High Court battle to deport up to 13,000 failed asylum-seekers to Zimbabwe, despite warnings that they face persecution there for having sought asylum in Britain. State-sponsored violence surrounding the presidential election run-off has resulted in the murders of several opposition activists. Last month Gordon Brown denounced Robert Mugabe’s regime as a “criminal cabal”, and the Foreign Office has warned against all travel to Zimbabwe. Campaigners have criticised the Government’s “double standards”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-retreats-on-deportation-threat-to-zimbabweans-865060.html

A GAY asylum seeker has been refused permission to stay in Scotland and told he is likely to be safe in his homophobic homeland provided he behaves “discreetly”.

Scotland on Sunday revealed earlier this year that Syrian Jojo Jako Yakob was battling to stay here after suffering horrific abuse because of his sexuality and political activities.

It has now emerged that an immigration tribunal has turned down ADVERTISEMENThis request to stay in the UK, despite accepting that Yakob is gay and that Syria criminalises and represses homo– sexuality.

In a judgment that has appalled gay rights campaigners, the tribunal suggests Yakob is unlikely to come to any harm so long as he keeps his sexuality under wraps.

Lawyers for the 20-year-old are planning a last-ditch court bid to stop him being deported. Campaigners said they were in no doubt Yakob’s life would once again be placed in serious danger.

Yakob, a Christian member of the repressed Kurdish minority in the Arab state, fled to the UK two years ago after being arrested, shot and beaten. He left his home country after surviving a harrowing ordeal at the hands of Syrian police and prison guards. He had been arrested for distributing anti-government leaflets.

When prison guards discovered he was homosexual he suffered horrific beatings and was assaulted so badly that he fell into a coma.

Despite his attempts to start a new life in Scotland, the Home Office ordered his deportation in March and, last week, his appeal against the decision was denied.

The ruling by the Asylum Immigration Tribunal, sitting in Glasgow, states: “Syria criminalises and represses homosexuality. Homosexuals have to modify their behaviour and lifestyle accordingly. We find no evidence that in Syria (Yakob] would conduct himself other than discreetly to avoid repercussions.”

The tribunal concluded that case law does not allow homosexuals from repressive countries to international legal protection.

Yakob fled Syria for London in 2006 inside a lorry. He applied for asylum and was granted extended leave by the Home Office, but was arrested in Aberdeen last April after being found in possession of a fake Belgian passport. He was handed a 12-month sentence and sent to Polmont Young Offenders Unit, near Falkirk, until his release on bail this month. His case was first highlighted by Scotland on Sunday in March, when he was served with a deportation order by the Home Office despite the fact that homosexuality is illegal in his home country.

Yakob says he now fears for his life following the tribunal’s decision.

“I am very afraid of being sent home,” he said. “I am afraid for my life. But I will do my best to win my case and stay in Scotland. I want to stay here, but I can’t do anything until I am allowed to stay. I can’t get a job, I can’t do my computer training – my life is on hold.

“I just want to be happy and live my life.

“They believed that I was gay but they said it was not a problem to be gay in Syria if you keep your mouth shut.

“But how do you live? That is no way to live. I want to live my life and be free, and I could not do that in Syria.”

The tribunal determination questioned whether Yakob wanted to stay in the UK to avoid compulsory military service. It also found it “difficult to see” his affiliations to a Kurdish political party, since he was only half Kurdish.

It found Yakob’s evidence to have been “self-contradictory and unreliable” and questioned the truth over his Kurdish ethnic origins, his family circumstances, his account of being detained in a Syrian prison and his reasons for coming to the UK.

But gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the refusal was “irrational, ill-informed and insensitive”.

He added: “This young man’s life will be in danger if he is deported. It’s outrageous that our Government is showing such a callous disregard for human rights.

“The Government is fast losing its gay-friendly credentials by its heartless, cruel and vindictive mistreatment of gay asylum seekers.”

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/Gay-asylum-seeker-to-be.4260491.jp

PREGNANT Ling Lin should be looking forward happily to her baby’s arrival in just a month.

Instead, Lin, who fled China in fear of her life, was condemned by Britain’s asylum system to living rough and in fear on the streets of Scotland.

The 23-year-old faced persecution in her homeland because she followed a religion forbidden by the government.

But she has failed to find the security she craved here and is part of an invisible army of destitute asylum seekers and refugees living from hand to mouth in Scotland.

New figures show more than 1000 destitute asylum seekers and refugees, including hundreds of children, have been given small crisis grants by charities to provide food and other basics in Scotland.

They need the help because they have lost their right to support and accommodation while they await a final decision on their right to stay in the UK.

Lin said yesterday: “It is very hard for me having nowhere to stay and moving about so much.

“I just wanted to come here to start a new life and make a fresh start.

“I came to Glasgow because I heard that people were more generous and welcoming than in places like London.

“It is difficult because not everyone has been so kind and the streets can be very frightening.

“I have been called names and I know people have been attacked but I could not have stayed in China.

“I followed the Huhan religion, which is not allowed by the government. One day, the police came to arrest me. I was lucky to escape at all.”

Lin, from Guangzhou in southern China, slept rough before staying with various volunteers from charities and church groups.

She is awaiting news from the Home Office - who are still slowly processing her asylum claim - on whether she can get Section Four support.

Section Four, which provides accommodation and vouchers for basic necessities, is available to limited groups of asylum seekers, including pregnant women and new mums.

Lin said: “It can be demeaning. I have to rely on cash handouts from people to buy food and other items.

“I would eventually want to get my own home and bring up my baby. I could then concentrate on studying and making a new life for us both.

“I need to have a scan soon to check on the baby. I hope the baby is healthy and that it has not been affected by the stress of being homeless.

“Scotland is very different from China but this is the place I want - and need - to call home.”

A number of pregnant Chinese women are in the same situation in Scotland.

Hua Qin, 28, was also eight months pregnant when she arrived in Glasgow.

She said: “I have stayed in 12 different places over a four-month period.

“Moving around so much was really hard but I am so grateful for the generosity of the Scottish people.

“Without them, I don’t know how I would have survived.”

Qin stayed with a volunteer from a housing group and has now been granted Section Four Support. Baby Luo Si Xie is now three months old.

In one recent month alone, 138 asylum seekers applied for crisis assistance from one small Glasgow housing group.

And the Refugee Survival Trust give out around 100 destitution grants per month to people in crisis in Scotland.

Abdulla Ibrahim Muhamed, 30, fled Somalia after civil war erupted and members of his family were killed.

Armed men broke into his home and poured boiling water over his legs and genitals before stabbing him in the back with a bayonet.

His attempt to stay in the country was derailed by what the UK Government called an “administrative error” when the Home Office lost his paperwork and legal documents.

Abdulla said: “I had to leave Somalia or I was dead. I just arrived in Glasgow a few days ago and I have been staying in Buchanan Street bus station. I am devastated to have ended up like this.

“I have nothing now and no legal evidence to support me because of a socalled administration error.

“People have given me s10 here and there so that I can have food to eat.

“I have stayed in hostels or sometimes on the streets too. It is worse when the pubs close - most people are kind but some people have given me trouble.

“Some men came up to me in the bus station and said I had no business being there and threatened me. It was terrifying.

“The nights are the worst. That’s when you are more likely to hear abuse.

“I want to settle here and make a better life but I still haven’t heard if I can get Section Four support.”

The charity Positive Action in Housing organised a sleepout in George Square, Glasgow, last month to raise awareness of the issue.

Robina Qureshi, of PAH, said: “These people are denied all state support, thrown out of their housing and are not allowed to work.

“They have no money for food, shelter and the everyday things we take for granted.

“Destitution is being used to drive people out of the country but many thousands simply cannot leave and are now homeless and hungry.”

A UK Border Agency spokeswoman said: “The Government are committed to providing protection for individuals genuinely in need. There is no need for asylum seekers to be destitute. We provide measures that ensure that individuals are not destitute.”

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/real-life-stories/2008/07/07/exclusive-the-eight-months-pregnant-asylum-seeker-left-penniless-on-the-streets-86908-20634413/