Dungavel move may herald asylum breakthrough

Published on Tuesday 12 May 2009 22:06

AN END to locking children up in Dungavel detention centre was last night said to be a step nearer following the launch of a scheme to help failed asylum seekers return home voluntarily.

The project will see about five families of failed asylum seekers given housing and support for three months to help them plan a return to their home country.

Dedicated social workers will help identify the reasons family members do not want to return and will try to overcome their fears.

This could be through helping them identify work and education opportunities in their country of origin or ensuring they can address health issues like having the correct inoculations. But if after 12 weeks families are not prepared to leave voluntarily, they will face forced removal.

The scheme, based in Glasgow's Kinning Park area, will cost 125,000-a-year and will be funded by the Scottish Government and the UK Border Agency.

The moves were yesterday welcomed by the Scottish Government as "a step towards" ending the detention of children in the Dungavel centre in Lanarkshire.

Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: "Asylum seekers must be treated fairly and humanely.

"This is at the heart of this new innovative and exciting pilot in which Scotland will lead the way for the entire UK."

Phil Taylor, the UK Border Agency's regional director in Scotland and Northern Ireland, said families were only detained as a "last resort".

"We are all committed to making that number as small as we possibly can and if we can eliminate the need for removals, so much the better," he said.

About 100 asylum-seeking families a year are refused permission to stay in Scotland. Sixty per cent go home by their own accord. The rest are usually taken to Dungavel before their return home. Dawn raids to remove failed asylum seekers are said to be happening no more than once a month.