Teams given new powers to cut dawn raids

The forced removal of asylum seekers and their children has led to outcry in Scotland. Now, following meetings with the First Minister, Jack McConnell, the immigration minister, Liam Byrne, said new powers would be handed to Scotland.

Two teams based in Glasgow will process applications north of the Border for the first time and ensure every family has a lead official to see the case through from beginning to end. More than 3,000 people in Scotland are facing deportation.

Mr Byrne said the new squads would ensure a decision is reached within six months on each case. It is hoped a closer relationship with immigration officials will mean more asylum seekers are persuaded to leave the country voluntarily, reducing the need for dawn raids.

However, Mr Byrne insisted Britain would not become a "soft touch" for asylum seekers and dawn raids would still be necessary as a "last resort".

Dawn raids have caused widespread concern in Scotland, following several high-profile cases such as that of the Vucaj family from Kosovo, who were forced to leave the country last year despite mass protests. More recently, a number of families have been removed from their homes in Glasgow to detention centres in the early hours, despite protests.

Mr Byrne pointed out that 70 per cent of asylum seekers failed in their applications. Of 1,400 families or 4,500 individuals seeking asylum in Scotland at the moment, 1,100 have failed.

The minister said families were offered 3,000 in support and training when they return to their country of origin, but most refused to go. Of 140 individuals offered help in September, just one came forward.

Mr Byrne said that the "trail-blazing" attitude of the Executive had led to a wider review of Britain's treatment of asylum seekers' families to be published later this year.

Robina Qureshi, the director of Positive Action in Housing, welcomed any reforms to the "barbaric practice of dawn raids against innocent families on Scottish soil".

But she called for changes in the law, which is reserved to Westminster, saying: "We can only talk about removals when we have a just and humane asylum system."

Seeking sanctuary

CHARITY says she came to Scotland seeking asylum from rape and almost certain death.

She said her opposition to the government in Uganda meant her husband and brother were killed and she was gang-raped by soldiers. She came to Scotland in 2003 thinking she would find safety.

"I was raped and I was beaten. My family were killed, so I ran here to seek sanctuary which I have not found," she said.

A well-dressed woman in her mid-twenties, Charity claims she was refused asylum after being badly represented, and imprisoned in a number of detention centres across Britain for five months. At one point, she went on hunger strike for 38 days.

"I am not allowed to work, I am not allowed to do anything and it is making me so depressed," she said.

As she waited for her latest appeal to be processed, she said the government needed to bring in better processes for people like her.

"I do not know if I will be detained and sent back. But if I go back, I have no-one and I will be in danger."