Asylum girl’s last appeal is in vain
‘I thought Britain was a country where they looked after children. But it’s not’
Rosie Kane, the Scottish Socialist MSP, said she would be travelling to Germany this morning to highlight the family's plight.
"The Home Office may think they're clever telling us these children are no longer in Scottish jurisdiction, but these children are still in the minds of the Scottish people. People here are appalled by the way the Home Office is currently trying to sneak them away like cargo to another country ... It is a clandestine cloak-and-dagger activity to hide the pain of young people who need counselling and support." The Herald
Asylum girl’s last appeal is in vain The Herald
McConnell forced to look other way over immigration The Herald
Shaming of Scotland
Ay family are failed by politicians' moral cowardice
Right up to the eve of departure, the silence remained as shameful as it was deafening. The best that can be said for the Scottish Executive is that it has been consistent throughout an affair that has blackened Scotland and its government. Not one word of protest or support on behalf of Yurdugal Ay and her four children, due to be deported from Britain today, has been uttered by ministers at Holyrood. They have stuck to the line concocted a year ago, when Mrs Ay and her children were taken to Dungavel detention centre in Lanarkshire to await the outcome of a protracted legal process to determine whether they would be granted asylum in this country. The mantra was repeated last night: this was a matter for the Home Office. If politicians had concerns about the case, it was the job of MPs, not MSPs, to raise them, as immigration was a reserved matter. Not all MSPs have been as supine as Holyrood ministers. Sandra White, the SNP MSP, said the treatment meted out to the Ays was a violation of human rights. Rosie Kane, the SSP MSP, accused the government of traumatising the children; emotive language, but difficult to challenge. The Herald
Kurdish teenager's last plea for asylum The Scotsman
Asylum children are deported BBC News Online
