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Detention of children in Dungavel
12/05/2009
The creation of a new pilot project which will allow failed asylum seeking families in Glasgow to stay in designated flats while they await their return home, has been welcomed by the Scottish Government as a step towards ending the detention of children at Dungavel.
The joint initiative between Glasgow City Council, the UK Border Agency and the Scottish Government, due to start next month, will aim to encourage these families to return home voluntarily and help to end the regime of dawn raids, the detention of innocent children and the forced return of families.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Fiona Hyslop, said:
"I welcome the launch of this initiative and the commitment of all the partners towards making this happen. 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.
"The Scottish Government remains fundamentally opposed to the detention of children and dawn raids and consider that one child detained is one child too many.
"We are therefore hopeful that this project will help end the detention of children in Dungavel or elsewhere and will pave the way for similar schemes which recognise that asylum seeking children deserve the same welfare and children's rights as every other child in Scotland."