Salmond joins fight to save Scots girl, 10, from being deported

Published on Thursday 26 November 2009 21:40

PRESSURE on immigration chiefs was growing last night to allow a ten-year-old asylum seeker and her mother to stay in the UK after First Minister Alex Salmond took up the case.

Precious Mhango and mother Florence are being held in Yarl's Wood detention centre, in Bedfordshire, having previously been locked up in Dungavel, Lanarkshire.

The pair were due to be flown back to Malawi earlier this week but won a late reprieve after a judicial review was lodged.

Locals in Glasgow's Cranhill area, where the family lives, have been campaigning for the pair to be released from detention – the Mhangos have been in the UK for six years – and the case has been taken up by SNP MSP Anne McLaughlin.

Mr Salmond told MSPs yesterday: "We have made continuing representations to the UK government on the detention of children. Michael Russell, the minister for culture and external affairs, wrote to Phil Woolas (the UK immigration minister] on Friday of last week specifically on the case raised by Anne McLaughlin."

Mr Woolas has also been lobbied by Ms McLaughlin to release the Mhangos on humanitarian grounds. Ms McLaughlin said yesterday the consensus across Scotland was that "the detention of children is morally wrong".

Mr Salmond added: "The Scottish Government remains fundamentally opposed to the retention of children at Dungavel and to dawn raids. We've made it clear that asylum seekers and refugees must and should be treated fairly and humanely and, whilst they are in Scotland, they must be supported."

The Scottish Government is backing a three-year pilot in Glasgow aimed at reducing the numbers of children in Dungavel.

However, last night Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, which campaigns for asylum-seeker rights, dismissed promises from politicians to end the detention of children there as a "PR stunt."

"The Scottish Government and Jim Murphy, Scottish Secretary, have both said they are opposed to it. But since Mr Murphy made his statement last year that the detention of children was going to end, 114 children have been sent to Dungavel.

"It is nothing more than PR for them. If they really want to end it then get on with it and end it – don't talk about it, end it."

Ms Qureshi said the trauma experienced by children and families held in detention was illustrated by the high-profile case of the Ay family who were held in Dungavel for a year before being deported to Germany in 2003.

"They got refugee status in Germany on grounds of the psychological trauma suffered in Dungavel. If that doesn't show the effect of isolating and locking up people, then what does?" she added.

John Wilkes, chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council, said: "Detention, even for a short period, is a traumatic experience for children. It is inhumane, and has a serious impact on their physical and mental health.

"It also has a significantly detrimental effect on their education. Not only are educational resources very limited in detention centres, but it is impossible for children in this extremely stressful situation to concentrate and focus on school work."