names not numbers

More than 200 children, families, women and men are held at any one time in Dungavel since it opened in September 2001.

The names and stories of those incarcerated there are important because it gives us some idea of what Dungavel Removal Centre really is - a travesty of human rights on Scottish soil.

Knowing who is inside also reminds us of the ones who go nameless, whose stories we don't know.

We have tried to include names and pictures where possible.

There are stories of why people fled, what happened them to during their incarceration, their struggle to be recognised as human beings inside a system determined to strip them of their basic human rights.

And there are stories of courageous people trying to expose the abuse of human rights at Dungavel.

Their stories also reveal the absolute zero status accorded to 'asylum seekers' incarcerated in Dungavel on Scottish soil. In reality they have no rights whatsoever. Any abuse of their rights cannot be seen by the outside world. The Scottish Executive refuses to speak out on the travesties going on inside Dungavel.

Some people think the campaigners are on the outside. Actually, many are on the inside too, telling their stories with such courage and at great risk to their own safety as well.

That is why the campaign must continue until Dungavel is closed down for good.

Saturday 2 October, 2004: Julia Gulshan Babayeva and Family, Azerbaijan: Julia and family free at last:  After a two week campaign to stop the deportation and detention of Julia Babayeva and her sons, Alex and Aziz, the family were granted a court petition to resume their asylum claim. They were released on Friday from Tinsley House, Gatwick Airport.

16th September 2004: John Oguchuckwu, 27 years old, Nigerian is FREE  John was freed today - Thursday 16 September 2004 - after a public campaign to raise his bail money. In the past nine months John Oguchuckwu has been held at Dungavel immigration centre, Lanarkshire, Greenock Prison and the Colnbrook centre, Middlesex. Supporters, including film director Peter Mullan, Gary Lewis, The Quakers, Dungavel Befriending Group, Beth Junor and many many others were able to raise £2,300 to secure his release. The 27-year-old former trainee priest is fighting deportation from the UK. He was denied asylum, but has remained in the country since he launched a civil action to sue security officers who he claimed assaulted him while he was being deported at Heathrow Airport in December. Mr Oguchuckwu, whose hearing was held in Glasgow, was previously at the Dungavel centre for six months, but also spent several months in Greenock Prison after there were fears he may have attempted to commit suicide. Most recently, he had been in Colnbrook immigration centre in Middlesex. Following the hearing, Mr Oguchuckwu said he was "very happy" and "alright".

"What I wanted for nine months is freedom, I thank the Dungavel bail fund from the depths of my heart and all the people, everyone, who helped me and ask God to bless them. For nine months I was in a place of steel and locked doors and my heart was becoming so sad and low. Today I am free and my heart feels God's light."

Peter Mullan hit out at government treatment. Mr Mullan, who directed the Magdalene Sisters, said what happened to Mr Oguchuckwu was an "injustice of the highest order".

"All these people have been caught in a Catch-22 - when as a consequence of detention they suffer mental health problems," he said. "It then gives the government license to put them into prison, where their mental health will suffer even more. "The fact that people give money demonstrates that Scottish people are more compassionate than our so-called governments."

Fellow Scots director Ken Loach also gave money to the bail fund.

Robina Qureshi, of the charity Positive Action in Housing, said:

"He is now free to continue his civil action and fight for his right to refuge through a decent set of lawyers."

Mr Oguchuckwu has instructed his solicitors to prepare a civil action following the alleged incident at Heathrow. His legal team argued that removing him from the UK while the case was pending would breach his right to a fair hearing. Read background to this case.

9th September 2004: Reading this, you might almost forget that John Oguchuckwu and others like him, are refugees, not criminals.
 

John was 'detained' in Dungavel Removal Centre for 8 months. John alerted the press to the suicide of 23 year old Vietnamese man Tung Wang. Tung Wang had hung himself inside a toilet at Dungavel. John became severely depressed.
 

He was transferred to Greenock Prison in july. When his story came to light, the authorities claimed John was violent. However, Greenock Prison's psychiatric report stated that John was taken to Greenock because of concerns about his mental state. John said:
 

"The other prisoners keep asking me what I have done. I say I haven’t done anything. They ask me “how long are you serving?” and I say “I don’t know, I did not commit any crime, I don’t know for how long I am in here”. They are annoyed for me to be in prison.”
 

On Saturday 4 September, five days before his bail hearing was due to take place in Glasgow, John was taken on a ten hour journey to Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre in London. This 'centre' is modelled on a high security category b prison. Each cell is designed to hold two detainees. There is a toilet built into the cell which is only half partitioned and does not have a door, not affording detainee proper privacy. You can contact or visit Andre Aliev at: B Wing, Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre, Colnbrook Bypass Longford, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 0HB Tel: 020 8607 5200. His lawyer was not informed of the move.
 

The bail hearing took place on Thursday 9 September. John was not present. The Adjudicator did not accept the terms put forward for bail. Another cautioner and accommodation provider had to be found in Scotland. The hearing was withdrawn.

A new bail hearing has been set for Thursday 16 September 2004 at 10 am.
 

26 August 2004: Two asylum seekers have sewn their lips together and started a hunger strike in Greenock Prison. Andre Aliev is Russian and has been detained since January 2003. He was transferred from Dungavel to Greenock Prison in August 2004 where he is on hunger strike.  Vasil Gabbes, a Palestinian man, is also on hunger strike. We do not know how long he has been detained. Both men were transferred to the jail from the Dungavel detention centre. The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) would not comment on individual cases. 27 year old John Oguchuckwu was sent to Greenock prison indefinitely because he became suicidal after spending EIGHT months in Dungavel. Oguchuckwu’s lawyers point out that he turned “whistleblower” following Mr Tung Wang’s suicide in July 2004 and rang refugee support groups to let them know about the Vietnamese man’s death. ( A fatal accident inquiry is to be held into Wang’s death). Just a few days later, Oguchuckwu was moved to Greenock.  Robina Qureshi, of Positive Action in Housing, criticised the Home Office. She said the men were being treated like criminals and should not have been transferred to the jail. Asylum seekers are usually held at Dungavel detention centre in Strathaven, Lanarkshire, while their claims are evaluated. The response of the Home Office is to simply dump them in a prison alongside convicted criminals. It is understood that the Russian man was taken to Dungavel in January 2003 and transferred to Greenock jail two weeks ago. She said: "Since then he has gone on hunger strike and sewn his lips up, as has another Palestinian asylum seeker, whose name we don't know. "This is not about people who have been left in Dungavel for a matter of days, they have been left for up to one-and-a-half years to basically rot and that's leading them to such despair that they are considering suicide as their only option. "The response of the Home Office is to simply dump them in a prison alongside convicted criminals." She said it was wrong for asylum seekers to be effectively punished by the system while their claims were processed, then put into prison. There are arrangements in place in exceptional circumstances where the SPS can accept asylum seekers SPS spokeswoman A spokeswoman for the SPS said: "There are arrangements in place in exceptional circumstances where the SPS can accept asylum seekers. "They are accepted only in exceptional circumstances under the agreed protocol between the SPS and the Immigration Service." The Home Office too declined to comment on individual cases. But a spokeswoman said: "The Home Secretary's commitment to end the routine use of prison accommodation to hold immigration detainees has been fulfilled and the practice ended in January 2002. "It was made clear at that time that exceptions would have to be made for reasons of security and control, i.e. because an individual could threaten and disrupt the orderly working of the immigration centre, the staff or other detainees." Ms Qureshi also raised the case of a Nigerian man she said was recently transferred from Dungavel to prison because he had suicidal tendencies. "These people are innocent, they are not criminals," Ms Qureshi went on. "The Home Office clearly sees no difference between Dungavel and Greenock Prison because it is using them as part of the overall detention system." The Scottish Socialist Party called on the Scottish Executive to make a statement on the use of Greenock Prison to hold asylum seekers. SSP justice spokesman Colin Fox said Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson should address the Scottish Parliament as "a matter of urgency". He said: "The use of Scottish jails to hold asylum seekers who have committed no offence and who have not been charged with any crime is an extremely serious development. "The executive can no longer remain silent when its ministers are now directly involved in the way that asylum seekers are being treated in Scotland." Source

22 August 2004: A 27-year-old refugee priest from Nigeria, John Oguchuckwu, was sent to Greenock prison indefinitely because he became suicidal after spending eight months in Dungavel. Oguchuckwu’s imprisonment has been condemned as illegal by his lawyers. Supporters say he was moved to Greenock as Dungavel feared that another suicide among inmates would ruin its already internationally tarnished reputation. In an interview with the Sunday Herald from Greenock prison, Oguchuckwu begged to be released. Photographic evidence shows that he had previously been beaten – he alleges the assault was by immigration guards at Heathrow airport. The Home Office and Scottish Prison Service (SPS) have both been branded “liars” for claiming that Oguchuckwu was sent to Greenock prison because he was violent after the Sunday Herald was given details of a psychiatric report which states that Oguchuckwu was transferred because he was threatening to kill himself. Oguchuckwu’s lawyers point out that he turned “whistleblower” following Wang’s suicide and rang refugee support groups to let them know about the Vietnamese man’s death. Just a few days later, Oguchuckwu was moved to Greenock. There have also been a number of other suicide attempts in Dungavel. Wang’s suicide caused Oguchuckwu to spiral into depression and consider taking his own life. Speaking to the Sunday Herald from Greenock prison by phone, Oguchuckwu said: “I was told that I was moved because I was suicidal. I wasn’t threatening or violent to any officers or other inmates. The Home Office is lying if it says that about me. “At the time I was just so down that I actually was passing out. I was feeling very low. I was clinically depressed. At one point I didn’t eat for two weeks. I was moved to Greenock three weeks ago. When they moved me I was beginning to get better. “An officer in Greenock prison told me they’d taken me here because Dungavel couldn’t do proper suicide watches.” Despite his mental state, Oguchuckwu says he as not put on suicide watch when he was transferred to Greenock. He is now in a shared cell and mixes with criminals, despite having never committed a crime. “I didn’t commit any crime,” Oguchuckwu said. “Why am I in this place? Everyone here is a criminal. I am not. I feel very depressed again. This move has taken me from bad to worse.” In Nigeria, Oguchuckwu’s mother, father and sister were killed in sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims. As a student priest, Oguchuckwu’s life was threatened. “If I’m deported I’ll be killed,” he said. “Nothing can be as bad as this. Even happiness is poison when you are in prison. I feel like I am going crazy.” Oguchuckwu found a girlfriend when he came to the UK and set up home in Manchester. His interview with the Sunday Herald was cut short when a prison warder in Greenock ordered him to hang up the phone as he was talking to a journalist. The Home Office and SPS said refugees were not transferred from detention centres like Dungavel to prisons like Greenock unless they posed a threat to security and were violent with other inmates or staff. “We do not move people because they are suicidal,” a Home Office spokesman said. However, he refused to go into the precise details of why Oguchuckwu was moved. The cases of transferred refugees are reviewed monthly. The SPS said a refugee could technically be kept in jail until they were deported, if they were deemed to have not changed their behaviour. No court order is needed to move a prisoner from Dungavel to a prison. Instead, an application is made by the immigration service to the SPS. The SPS said the application would be turned down if it was seeking to move a refugee because they were suicidal. An SPS spokesman said: “There are agreed criteria on transfers. If someone said they were suicidal, that is categorically not a reason to transfer.” A senior prisons source added: “Oguchuckwu was transferred as he had shown violence towards staff.” However, Jelina Rahman, one of the lawyers acting for Oguchuckwu, revealed the details of a psychiatric report, dated August 6 and compiled on Oguchuckwu when he arrived in Greenock, which reads: “He has been transferred from Dungavel as there were concerns with regard to deliberate self-harm.” Oguchuckwu supporters say this shows that the SPS and the Home Office have been caught out in blatant lies. Rahman said she is launching a civil claim on behalf of Oguchuckwu following the beating he allegedly received from guards in January. “He was assaulted at Heathrow after he was taken from Harmondsworth detention centre to be deported,” said Rahman. He had attempted suicide twice in Harmondsworth. “After this beating, Mr Oguchuckwu felt suicidal and was then taken to Dungavel.” Immigration bail was refused, said Rahman, as Oguchuckwu’s girlfriend – a single mother – could not raise the £5000 required to get him out. There will be another hearing in a few weeks. Rahman says she will take the case to the Court of Session if bail is refused. Rahman said the psychiatric report contradicted the government’s version of events, adding: “There is no mention in the psychiatric report of any violence. If he was violent, then why did the psychiatrist write a different story in his report? This is a potentially suicidal man who has been in jail for a month with criminals.” Rahman also pointed out that legal precedent states that while any court proceedings are on-going – such as the civil suit against the guards who Oguchuckwu says assaulted him – a person may not be deported from the UK. “His detention in Greenock prison is illegal,” said Rahman. “He was removed from Dungavel arbitrarily and on a whim. The proper courts were not involved. Mr Oguchuckwu has the same right to a fair hearing as anyone else.” Irène Nembhard, another lawyer acting for Oguchuckwu, has written to the Home Office saying that a judicial review of her client’s case is imminent. “We see cases like this over and over again with black men in prison. When they get depressed, they are labelled violent .” John Razik, a Christian Iraqi who was detained with Oguchuckwu in Dungavel, said: “ He never hurt anyone. Anyone who says he is violent is a liar. He should be free.” Razik, who was persecuted in Iraq because of his faith, tried to kill himself “many, many times” while in Dungavel. He was only released from the detention centre two months ago. “I hurt myself because I was in detention and I wanted to die,” he said. Razik’s arms are criss-crossed with cuts from suicide attempts. Razik, who plans to bring a case against Dungavel for unlawful imprisonment, also claims that he was beaten by immigration guards and accused of being violent. (Source: Sunday Herald)

Aug 14, 2004: Arshad Suhail Masih was living in Glasgow for nearly two years, appealing against the refusal of his asylum application. Arshad, a Christian, fled Pakistan after being threatened by certain Muslims who accused him of blasphemy. Glasgow police stopped the car Arshad was driving in because the driver was not wearing a seatbelt. The police found out that Arshad and two of his friends are asylum seekers. The immigration authorities then interviewed Arshad and his friends for three hours, finally instructing them to appear at the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) in Glasgow the following Monday. On his appearance there Arshad was arrested and imprisoned in Dungavel. His friends from the Pakistani Christian community are angry and bewildered. They have set up a group, Voice for the Voiceless, who marched and protested outside the NASS offices last week. For Arshad, deportation to Pakistan is tantamount to a death sentence. They intend to carry on with the campaigning until they get justice. Send messages of support to Voice for the Voiceless on 07904 083 058

Aug 11 2004: A LIVERPOOL woman is planning to follow her husband back to a war-ravaged country if the British government refuse to let him stay here. Millisa Masali-Monga, 25, is begging Home Office officials not to deport husband of three years Patrick back to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mr Masali-Monga, 29, was detained by immigration officials in Liverpool and sent to the Dungavel immigration removal centre in Ayrshire, Scotland. He fled the Democratic Republic of Congo after his father, a political activist, was shot dead by a rebel gang nearly five years ago. After a savage civil war the country is now overrun by warlords. Fearing the same fate as his father Mr Masali-Monga came to England four years ago and claimed political asylum. He married in October 2001 and the couple set up home in Wavertree. Two appeals against a Home Office decision to throw Mr Masali-Monga out of the UK failed. Speaking from the immigration centre Mr Masali-Monga said: "I do not want to go back to my country because I am scared I will be killed. "All we want is to be allowed to live together in Liverpool in peace." It is not yet known when Mr Masali-Monga will be sent back to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Source: liverpool echo

August 11, 2004: Arshad Suhail Masih is one of the many refugee prisoners held at Dungavel prison near Glasgow.  Arshad has been living in Glasgow for nearly two years, appealing against the refusal of his asylum application. Arshad, a Christian, fled Pakistan after being accused him of blasphemy. Glasgow police stopped the car Arshad was driving in because the driver was not wearing a seatbelt. The police found out that Arshad and two of his friends are asylum seekers. The immigration authorities then interviewed Arshad and his friends for three hours, finally instructing them to appear at the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) in Glasgow the following Monday. On his appearance there Arshad was arrested and imprisoned in Dungavel. His friends from the Pakistani Christian community are angry and bewildered. They have set up a group, Voice for the Voiceless, who marched and protested outside the NASS offices last week. For Arshad, deportation to Pakistan is tantamount to a death sentence. They intend to carry on with the campaigning until they get justice.

July 26, 2004: More asylum seekers in Dungavel Detention Centre in Lanarkshire could kill themselves because they feel they have no hope according to one detainee. It follows the suicide at the weekend of a 22 year old Vietnemese man who hung himself. He had been transferred from Harmondsworth in London. South African asylum seeker Sarah Jane Richards who's currently in Dungavel says the man had been detained for over a year and simply gave up hope of being released. (STV)

23 July 2004 - Mr Tung Wang, a 22 year old Vietnamese man, committed suicide by hanging himself at Dungavel Removal Centre. The 23-year-old man, who had been switched from the Harmondsworth centre at Heathrow Airport to the Lanarkshire unit, was found in a toilet by staff on Friday night. The man, who has not been named, had lived in Germany before coming to the UK earlier this year. Home Office officials confirmed that someone had died at Dungavel but refused to go into any further detail. It is understood the young man, who is thought to be from Vietnam, was in the centre unaccompanied. It was not known if he has family at the English detention centre. It is alleged that the death of Tung Wang was caused by the Home Office issuing him with a deportation order back to Vietnam. Serious physical and mental mistreatment of asylum seekers is alleged, by campaigners, both in detention and in the process of deportation. Home Secretary Blunkett visited Dungavel this month and described conditions there as 'entirely satisfactory'. A spokeswoman for Strathclyde Police confirmed the death, adding: 'There are no suspicious circumstances.'Length of detention: Unknown.

July 3, 2004 - John Razek Khaled, 34, was released from Dungavel Removal Centre after spending 25 months in detention. During this time he slashed his wrists on numerous occasions.  The Home Office claim he is from Egypt because his mother is an Egyptian. But he has never even been there. He has never tried to abscond and the UK authorities do not deport people to that country (Iraq) because of the instability there. A Home Office spokes-woman would not comment  on John's detention (January 2004) but said: "Enforced returns to Iraq will begin again when the situation is right".

July 2, 2004 - A female Asylum seeker detained at Dungavel, needing hospital treatment was transferred to Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride, handcuffed to a security guard. During her stay at the hospital, according to a hospital worker, the asylum seeker was chained 24 hours a day. This was in complete breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, ruled in November 2003 that the chaining/handcuffing of patients in hospitals was unacceptable. The woman, in her 20s and from Cameroon, was kept in handcuffs at Hairmyers Hospital in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, for a serious medical procedure. They were only removed so she could visit the toilet but even then she had guards with her. She was returned to the notorious Dungavel Detention Centre in Lanarkshire yesterday, home while her application for residency in the UK is processed. The woman, whose identity is known to the Scottish Mirror, was taken to Hairmyers on Tuesday morning. She spent all 48 hours of her stay there shackled and watched at all times by two security guards. A horrified hospital worker, who contacted us on the condition of anonymity, said: "Even when she was being examined by the doctor before her operation, the two guards stayed. She then got stripped and changed to go to the operating theatre. When the porter wheeled her down to the operating theatre on the trolley, the guards were still with her. One of the guards had their hand under the sheet. When she was taken into theatre, she was cuffed. She was definitely still handcuffed when she received her general anaesthetic. "She was knocked out. When she came in her clothes were dirty and there was some blood on her shorts. "Her hair was greasy and matted. She looked like she hadn't been given the chance to get a wash in days. "All of the staff were outraged at the way the guards had to be by her side for 24 hours a day." A Home Office spokesman said: "Physical restraint is sometimes necessary if the detainee has a history of violent behaviour or poses a risk to themselves or others." (Source: The Mirror)

July 2, 2004: A YOUNG refugee mother taken from her Leeds home to a controversial Scottish detention centre says she is fighting for her life. Zenab Traore fears she will be killed if she is sent back to her native Guinea. Immigration officers and police swooped on the young mum's home in Harehills, Leeds, in a dawn raid at the end of last month. The 24-year-old was taken away along with her 15-month-old daughter Mariam. They are now being held in the Dungavel detention centre in Lanarkshire from where immigration officials intend to deport them next Tuesday. But the young mum said she was terrified of returning to the West African country, which she fled two years ago when her family were killed by marauding rebels from neighbouring Liberia. Speaking from Dungavel, she said: I don't know what will happen to me and my baby if I go back. It is making me very stressed - I can't sleep and I am so confused and tired. I want to fight this but I have no money to get a solicitor to help me. Zenab, who has been diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, lost her appeal against her failed asylum claim in March last year. She said she was told by her solicitor in London an appeal would be made to the High Court but found out last month the firm had had failed to carry out its promise. Friends in Leeds said they were concerned for the young family's welfare. Shocked John Ward, who taught English to Zenab at Thomas Danby College, Leeds, said: She was quiet but always very friendly. I was really shocked when I heard what had happened to her. The manner in which she has been taken away and locked up is appalling. This is a young mum, not a criminal. Immigration officers have already tried to deport the family twice since their detention. On the second occasion Zenab claimed she was assaulted by immigration officers and made a statement to Scottish police. Zenab has been held at Dungavel since the end of May with her baby. The controversial detention centre has been besieged by protesters since it opened and has been roundly criticised for locking up the children of asylum seekers. At the parents' group attended by Zenab and Mariam there were messages of support for the family. Marsha Green, a support worker at Sure Start Harehills, said other parents were praying for her safe return.(Source Yorkshire Evening Post).

25 June 2004: Maxamuub Cawed, 25, was locked in solitary at Dungavel Detention Centre - for protesting against the detention of kids. He had tried to organise a peace protest at the centre, which he compares to America's Death Row. But hard-line bosses at the former Lanarkshire prison got wind of his plan - and immediately segregated him from fellow inmates. The calculated crackdown was last night branded a "gross breach of human rights" by leading critics of the asylum seeker base. In an exclusive interview with the Scottish Mirror, Maxamuub said: "I feel like I am on Death Row. "I am scared for my future because of the uncertainty in my life. My freedom means everything to me as it does to everyone in Dungavel." He had been protesting against the imprisonment of kids like little Misheel Narantsogt when he was singled out. Last night, Home Office officials coldly confirmed they had isolated Maxamuub from fellow refugees on Monday. And a spokesman said: "He was asking people to demonstrate with him and some detainees informed staff. "The protest never really got off the ground. But he has been taken away from the others." Maxamuub revealed he fears for his future as he languishes in the detention centre - but more so for the children there. He said: "There are about 90 people or more here at the minute and many more in the family unit, where there must be at least 10 children. "They treat us the way they want to treat us and sometimes it feels like we have no human rights. "The guards treat us well here but we have no freedom and we are rarely let out of our rooms." Under the European Convention on Human Rights, everybody has the right to freedom of expression and freedom of association. But rules vary for prisoners and people held in detention centres. Maxamuub arrived in the UK from Somalia, Africa, three years ago after fleeing its fierce civil war. He spotted the Mirror's successful campaign to free eight-year-old gala princess Misheel Narantsogt from Dungavel last week and contacted us from behind bars. Rule 40 of the Home Office rules for detention centres allows a detainee to be separated "in the interests of security or safety". But bosses must seek approval from the Home Secretary if they are removed for more than 24 hours. A Home Office spokeswoman confirmed there had been no violence and said the situation was being monitored. She added: "It was necessary to remove him from association." (Source: The Mirror).

June 18, 2004: A MONGOLIAN family which had been locked up in Dungavel and faced imminent deportation will be released this morning from the Lanarkshire detention centre after a legal move, campaigners said early today. The decision means eight-year-old Misheel Narantsogt will be able to appear as the princess at the lord mayor's parade in Liverpool next month.

Aamer Anwar, the family's lawyer, said they would be freed after a fresh asylum claim was submitted yesterday, based on the fact the government could not guarantee their safety in Mongolia, which has a record of human rights abuses. He said: "They must stop the removal direction because this is a fresh asylum claim, the central basis of which is that because of the international publicity of this family their lives are under threat from the Mongolia security apparatus." Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, the charity which led the campaign to free the family, said: ''The family are overjoyed at this new turn of events and it means that they can return to Liverpool and Misheel will get her dress fitting and be the princess at the parade on July 10. Her 17-year -old brother, Evsaana, will also be able to sit his English exam." Misheel's mother, Sinee, 37, and her husband, Jugder, 38, said: "We're so happy and thank you to everyone who helped us in Scotland and Liverpool. My husband and I looked out of the window and saw the beautiful Scottish country through the barbed wire and steel fence, and Scotland reminded us of the Mongolian landscape and we could not see the green countryside or walk through it, just saw it through the steel fence and that made me sad." Ms Qureshi said the release was a combination of the Mr Anwar's work and publicity generated around the family. She added: "If it weren't for the excellent campaigning and speedy legal representation, they would probably be deported. It is shocking that the first minister chose not to speak out yet again. Asylum might be reserved, but it doesn't mean that Dungavel is invisible. The Scottish conscience will not rest until children are freed from Dungavel."  (Source: The Herald)

16 June, 2004: Perhaps the worst innovation of the current Labour government is that, unlike any other government in Europe, it now detains whole families, including young children and babies, and pregnant women. At the end of 2002 115 women were detained. The Home office gives no figures on the number of children, apparently considered non-persons, detained. Because of the inability of UKDS to protect the women and families detained in Harmondsworth, they have been moved elsewhere. Yarl's Wood was reopened in September 2003 for women and apparently, in future, children. Children and their mothers are detained at Dungavel, Tinsley and Oakington. Some children have been moved from mainstream schools, where they were much appreciated by their friends and teachers, and have been locked up in prison-like conditions, at Dungavel for example, for months on end, in spite of numerous protests, in the House of Lords and elsewhere. Pregnant women have inadequate medical attention. Mothers have to queue for hours to receive powdered milk or nappies, which are allocated one at a time. A report by Bail for Immigration Detainees, A Crying Shame:Pregnant Asylum Seekers and Their Babies in Detention, gives a harrowing account based on interviews with some of these women. source

30 April 2004: Yarl’s Wood : The Prison Ombudsman 30th April 2004 report showed that between Oct 2003 and Jan 2004, the incidence of use of force at Yarl’s Wood (all women detainees) was by far the highest of all Removal Centres - twice that of the second highest incidence at Dungavel and more than 5 times that of Dover (all male detainees). Source

28 April 2004, 12:00pm: Baroness Scotland of Asthal, a Home Office minister, has stated that Dungavel detention centre, in Lanarkshire, currently holds six families, with ten children, four of whom are of school age. source

1 March 2004:

Mutuamba Jolie Ntenda from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is 24 years old and fled two years ago. At the beginning of 2001, she worked in the palace of then President Laurent Kabila while her husband Rashidi Mizele Casereca served as his bodyguard. On January 16 the dictator was assassinated. Newspaper cuttings suggest Rashidi pulled the trigger and later that same day he was himself killed. Jolie was Rashidi's second wife - she has the marriage certificate to prove it - and she maintains she knew nothing of her husband's alleged involvement in a planned coup. Jolie swas arrested and imprisoned in Makala prison. She claims she was tortured and regularly raped by guards there. Two raped her four times each. After ten months of incarceration, an old army colonel friend of her dead husband warned her she was due to be executed. He arranged her escape, smuggled her out of prison and, after fleeing to the UK, Jolie claimed asylum and settled in Derby. Jolie's soft spoken, gentle manner conceals a resolve of steel. Her ten months in prison must have been an almost unbearable ordeal. A British GP examined Jolie's scars. There were scars on her shins "which I suspect may be related to beatings that she had had". Of those on her ankles and knee, he said: "The scarring appears consistent with the story that she was repeatedly hit with a stick on her legs and her feet were tied together by a rope." After examining her hands he concluded: "The nail beds of the right index and middle fingers had been destroyed and there was also extensive scarring with destruction of the nail of the right thumb, whilst the right ring and little fingers were also slightly deformed." Despite the physical evidence, her case was turned down. Her account of her escape was dismissed as "implausible" and her story of ill treatment in prison was not believed. Jolie was told in a letter from the Home Office: "With regard to your allegation of being beaten, tortured and raped, the Secretary of State notes that you have provided no corroborative evidence to support this statement. He would expect anyone who had been raped to have received medical treatment for their ordeal. However, you stated at interview that you did not receive any medical treatment. In light of the information above, the Secretary of State is unable to attach any credence to your claim."  The Country Information Policy Unit (CIPU) produces reports for the UK Government. CIPU states: "The Government's human rights record is poor although there have been improvements in some areas. Citizens do not have the right to change their government peacefully. The security forces have been responsible for unlawful killings, torture, beatings, rape, extortion and other abuses. In general, the security forces have committed these abuses with impunity. The law forbids torture but in practice security forces and prison officials have used torture and have often beaten prisoners in the process of arresting or interrogating them. The Government has not responded to charges of inmate abuse and repeated beatings by its security forces and prison officials. Some members of the police, military and security forces have also raped, robbed and extorted money from civilians." On conditions inside Makala Prison, CIPU states: "The Government provides inadequate food and prisoners remain dependent on the personal resources of family or friends. Guards demand bribes and steal food from prisoners. Some prisoners bribe guards to receive better treatment or to get out of work assignments. Local NGOs have reported that 146 persons died at Makala Prison in 2002, 24 of who died after being transferred to the prison from the custody of the Provincial Inspection of Kinshasa (IPK) and the PIR, where they were beaten severely. Most of the remaining detainees died from malnourishment and illness." Nowhere in the DRC could be considered safe. 3 million people are thought to have died during the last five years of a devastating war. Laurent Kabila's son Joseph is now in power in DRC and Jolie understandably does not feel safe to return. She fled to the US to try to stay there but failed and was returned. Last year she was imprisoned in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre while her deportation was arranged. On the day of her deportation she stripped naked and refused to leave her room. She claims she was then assaulted by officers working for Group 4, the private security firm which runs the centre. Lawyers are bringing a civil claim on her behalf against the Home Office and Group 4 alleging ill treatment. In the end, the pilot refused to fly with such a distressed individual on the plane. Jolie was taken to Dungavel Immigration Detention Centre in Scotland, from where she was given "temporary admission". It means what it says and Jolie is still nervously awaiting her fate. The callous tone of her rejection by the Home Office is not an isolated case.source

1 March 2004: TWO Latvian asylum seekers have been deported from Scotland eight weeks before they could legally settle in the country as economic migrants, it emerged yesterday. However, the Home Office indicated that it would continue to pursue a hard line against failed asylum seekers from the 10 "ascension states" which are due to join the EU on May 1. Jelena Serenja, 21, and Genadis Suhotskis, 31, were arrested 11 days ago when they reported to immigration officials in Glasgow. The Home Office confirmed to The Herald that they have subsequently been flown out of the country. The couple, who have previously been detained in Dungavel, came to Scotland in 2001 after claiming to have uncovered government corruption in Latvia. Ms Serenja has a bullet wound in her shoulder which she claims was the result of an assassination attempt. Although this was accepted by the government, their asylum application was turned down. Friends and supporters said they were unsure whether they have been taken to Russia or Latvia.

February 13 2004: Bridget, an unaccompanied child refugee, came to this country nearly 3 years ago. Her age was disputed: she herself said that she was not yet 16. She was placed in detention at Harmondsworth for some months and was only released when the Home Office finally accepted the recommendation of a doctor's report that she was under age. She was then placed in B&B and began to attend College. After a few weeks of confusion, she made a happy life for herself, made friends easily, was an enthusiastic and devout Christian and enjoyed College, where she started a pre-nursing course. At the end of her first College year, she got a credit and did well in a placement at an Old People's Home. She managed her relationships with boys with remarkable self-respect. She did show signs of post-traumatic stress, suffering dreadful nightmares about the violent death of her mother. I referred her to her GP, who managed to arrange some brief psychiatric treatment for her, which was remarkably successful. Her nightmares became infrequent. Bridget failed her appeal;  She was picked up, some months after her 18th birthday, at the coming of age party of her best friend. Both young women were placed in the cells at Chiswick Police Station on January 25th. Bridget was kept there until the 29th. She was not allowed home to pack, although at some point her clothes were fetched. She was not allowed to speak to her friend; both were kept in isolation, and she could hear her friend screaming and crying. On 29th Bridget was moved to Bedford. The night after arrival she phoned me to say that she was to be deported early the following morning to Ghana, which is not her country of origin. It was a Friday (January 30th) and everything was closed for the weekend, but I spent the evening trying to get her deportation to Ghana stopped. I took legal advice, and was told to advise Bridget that she should refuse deportation to Ghana, but say that she would accept, without demur, deportation to Sierra Leone, from where she had come. Somehow I was successful in halting her deportation. The following day at dawn, she was taken to Heathrow by van, waited for much of the day and then, without any explanation, was driven to Manchester, where she was held in the cells at the airport overnight. By this time she was exhausted and very distressed. She phoned me again and I explained what I thought was happening. On 2nd February, she was driven to Dungavel in Scotland. When she phoned, she was completely disoriented and crying. She had been told that an Immigration Officer was looking into the evidence about her country of origin. The following day I phoned her and she sounded quite unlike the Bridget I knew - quiet and listless. This continued; she did not bounce back, as I had come to expect. On February 13, I received a call from an unknown young man in Ghana. He had been deported with Bridget the previous day, and was picked up from the airport by his family. He gave me the number of the detention centre where Bridget was being held, and asked me to phone her. I telephoned immediately and was allowed to speak to Bridget, who was fearful that she would be kept in prison indefinitely. She was being held in a cell with not even a mat on which to sleep - just a dirty concrete floor. She had been refused access to her clothing, and was still in the woollen clothes she had needed in Scotland; she had not been able to wash for 2 days. She said she would kill herself. I was able to speak to an Immigration Officer, who reassured me that they were planning to send her on to Sierra Leone within days, when an aircraft was flying to Freetown; I then spoke to Bridget again, and told her to hold on -. things would come right. I made sure she had the contact address in Sierra Leone, which I had obtained for her. As her parents are dead, she had no one to meet her. I phoned Ghana each day, but was not allowed to speak to her again. She was, I believe, sent on to Sierra Leone on 18th February. I have heard nothing since, and am very concerned about her current welfare. source

January 22, 2004: AN unemployed fisherwoman provided sanctuary in her home for a 58 -year-old Russian woman who has spent nearly two years in Dungavel detention centre. Maria Ramanova, who does not speak any English, was released into the care of Lisa McCaffrey, a 26-year-old single mother of two from Ullapool, who came forward after hearing of her prolonged incarceration. Ms Ramanova, who applied for asylum in 1999, was arrested after mistakenly believing a work permit she was originally granted from the government at the time of her application gave her permission to remain in the United Kingdom. Prior to July 2002, asylum seekers were allowed to work if their application for asylum was outstanding for six months.  Ms Ramanova was arrested in May 2002 in Crawley, Sussex, and has remained in custody since then despite the Home Office not being able to provide any evidence she is at risk of absconding. This is one of the main reasons cited by the government for detaining asylum seekers. Yesterday, at a hearing at the immigration appellate office in Glasgow, applause broke out after a Home Office adjudicator decided she should be released on bail immediately. Ms Ramanova will now live in Ullapool with Ms McCaffrey and her two children, Nina, eight, and Hamish, four, and report to local police once a week until a final decision is made on her appeal to stay in the UK. Ms McCaffrey, who has been corresponding with Ms Ramanova through letters and telephone calls with the aid of interpreters, said her family was pleased to have at last secured her release. "I just felt that it was rotten that people who come to Scotland should be treated like this. Scotland is not meant to be like this," she said.

December 8, 2003:  An Iranian couple claim they were brutally beaten by security guards while being forcibly removed from Dungavel Detention Centre. Sarah Shafaie, who has a heart condition, claims she and her husband were repeatedly assaulted en route from Dungavel to Heathrow. Sarah Shafaie said: "One of them put her leg in my neck and and pressed me on the chair, and one of them pulling my hair, and I'm just crying and screaming." Twenty one year old Sarah Shafaie is now back in Dungavel with her husband Iman, after immigration authorities temporarily abandoned their attempt to deport them. She claims that this was because the pilot refused to fly after witnessing the treatment they received at the hands of security guards. Sarah Shafaie added: "They be very very angry, and one of them pushed my head on the wall." A spokesman for the Home Office said the allegations are being referred to the police. He stressed "Clearly we would find the use of any excessive force to be completely unacceptable." In Glasgow, Sarah's sister and brothers, who are also seeking asylum, are growing increasingly concerned for Sarah and Iman's safety. Bahareh Shafaie, Sarah's sister, said: "I'm really really worried about my sister, about her health, about their souls, because they hurted their souls as well. she can't sleep, she's just phoning me all the time, she's just crying ."

The Ay Family, Detained for one year and 19 days inside Dungavel, Deported to Germany on December 2, 2003: Shortly after half-past nine on the morning of Tuesday, August 5, Beriwan Ay was escorted by two immigration officials - one on each side, with their arms looped through hers - from a minibus on the runway at Stansted Airport up the steps onto flight EXS6770, bound for Frankfurt. She was taken to her seat next to a security officer in a cordoned-off section at the front of the specially chartered plane, away from the other failed asylum-seekers already on board. She was 14. The officials returned to the minibus for the rest of her family. One by one her sister Newroz, 13, their brother Dilovan, 12, eight-year-old and finally their mother, Yurdugal, were accompanied aboard the jet. It was the children's first time on an aeroplane, yet they were not allowed to sit beside each other and were instead each placed next to their own personal security guard. Medya, remembering TV footage of two aeroplanes flying into the twin towers, was terrified. In tears, she pleaded with the officers to let her sit with her mother. They said sorry, but they could not allow it. When Medya became quite hysterical, they relented and decided it would be safe to move her to a seat next to her sister Beriwan. Mrs Ay was warned that if she caused any trouble she and her children would have to be handcuffed. At 10.12am flight EXS6770 took off, flying past the airport's Union Jack fluttering gently in the summer breeze, and accelerating into the bright blue sky. After four years, one month and 17 days in Great Britain, the final quarter of it locked up behind reinforced steel fences and razor-sharp barbed wire in Dungavel detention centre, a former Victorian prison in Scotland's South Lanarkshire countryside, the family of Kurdish asylum-seekers from Turkey were deported back to Germany to begin the next round in their battle to find a safe place to call home. In their wake they left a fierce debate about New Labour's policy of detaining innocent children without limit of time. Opponents pointed out that Britain was the only country in Europe to do so; and stressed that in Scotland, someone accused of a serious criminal offence such as murder could only be detained for a maximum of 150 days without being brought to trial. The Ays (pronounced like eye) were held in detention in Britain for a longer time than any other asylum-seeking children. For one year and 19 days they shared a room of 13 square feet with their mother in the family unit at Dungavel, into which they were locked for 22 hours a day. If they wanted, they could attend "school" - one classroom in the family unit staffed by one teacher for all pupils irrespective of age or ability - but it was not compulsory and they could, if they preferred or if their mother allowed it, watch TV or stay in bed all day. In January, Harry Zeitlin, a well-respected emeritus professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at University College, London, examined the children and concluded that they had, to all intents and purposes, been held as prisoners in a high-security jail. The environment could be highly damaging, he added, and he called for their urgent release. According to other medical experts, all the children suffered psychological trauma. Newroz's hair began to fall out; she also developed a hand tremor, stopped eating and practically stopped talking. Teachers at her school in Kent, where the family had lived during their first three years in Britain, had described her as an exceptional pupil. Dilovan became confrontational and withdrawn; Medya tearful and clingy; and Beriwan, an intelligent girl who speaks three languages and had initially been the most robust, began to lose her resilience too. "It has not been a good year for us," reflects Beriwan, a polite but feisty teenager, now 15, who has become the translator, emotional crutch and self -appointed spokeswoman for her family. We are with Beriwan, 14-year-old Newroz (pronounced Nev-roz), Dilovan and Ingrid Wanka, an English and biology teacher, at their school, Duale Oberschule, in Kirchen, a prim and orderly village 65km east of Cologne. While the children are having their photographs taken, their teacher asks me, almost in a whisper, whether it is true that they were locked up while in Scotland. She shakes her head in disbelief. Last month, when she asked the children to tell her about the country, she says Newroz started to cry and Dilovan remained silent. After some encouragement, Beriwan told her a little about Dungavel. "It is very shocking, disgusting, to do that to children," says Wanka. "Children are always unguilty and should never be punished for what their parents are doing. I think maybe Dilovan can't speak about it. The girls can, maybe because they are a little older, but Dilovan, he is silent." She says Dilovan in particular is struggling at school because his German is so rusty. "The girls are trying very hard to understand and learn the language. But I've never heard a German word from the boy." When the photographer is finished, Beriwan begins, unprompted, to reflect again on the past year. There is a little more anger in her voice now and, when she recalls the experience, the words tumble from her mouth like boulders careering down a mountain. "That year in Dungavel, it was the worst of my life because I've never been in a prison before or a detention centre. That was my first time, and I feel very sad that I wasted one year of my life. When I was small I saw loads of bad things, but in Dungavel every single day was terrible. Nobody can imagine what it was like. The British people can't imagine. It's very difficult to say how it feels. It's not just because of the fences or because the officers come with those chains with all the keys on them. It's loads of other stuff as well. Do you know, because we all shared a room, me and Newroz, if we needed toiletries and stuff, we would have to ask the guards? We couldn't go outside for fresh air when we wanted and, when we did go out, all we could see was the sky and the fences and the barbed wire. That was our whole world and even at Christmas you didn't really know it was Christmas because we were still kept inside. Santa came with some presents and we had a special Christmas dinner, so for some hours we were happy, but after everything finished the pain just came right back." Beriwan is a pretty, dark-haired teenager with pristine manners and a level of maturity that defies her age. When she has finished talking, she looks at me with big, warm brown eyes full of tears. She shakes her head and begins to sob quietly. In Scotland, the plight of the Ay family provoked unprecedented outrage among church and union leaders, cross-party politicians, children's charities and a wide swath of the general public. It also gave devolution its most difficult hour as Scottish Executive ministers observed a rigid vow of silence on the grounds that legislative responsibility for immigration was a Home Office matter and therefore nothing to do with them. Their impotence led Bill Speirs, general secretary of the STUC, to compare Dungavel to Guantanamo Bay as a pocket of land under outside rule where local laws did not apply. Most tellingly, ten days after the family's deportation, Anne Owers, the government's own chief inspector of prisons, stated in a long-delayed report on Dungavel that children should be held in detention centres in exceptional circumstances only and for a very short period - "no more than a matter of days". Such pleas, however, fell on deaf ears at the Home Office. Battered by a right -wing press which had managed to create the perception that every asylum-seeker was bogus, a terrorist or an HIV-carrier, and alarmed by the rising popularity of the extremist British National Party, David Blunkett, the home secretary, and Beverley Hughes, the immigration minister, were determined to demonstrate that their government had a firm grip on this most controversial of political issues. They repeatedly justified the family's detention on the grounds that their mother was a "serial absconder" and that she was ''stringing out" the appeals process - a process created by their own government. When the pressure intensified, Hughes said there were only two options: to separate the children from their parents and take them into care, or to keep them together. In an interview on September 24, she told me: "I believe profoundly that the best place for the children is with their parents and to separate them would be unconscionable. I couldn't actually do that." Yet none of those protesting had ever suggested that the children should be split up from their mother. Instead, campaigners had recommended cheaper, more humane alternatives such as bail with reporting conditions or accommodating families in hostels run by churches and the voluntary sector rather than private, profit-making companies. Sarah Cutler, a policy and research officer with the charity Bail for Immigration Detainees, the only organisation in Britain to have carried out research into the detention of asylum-seeking families, said the government's main justification for detaining families was fundamentally flawed. "There is no evidence to show that the families are likely to abscond. On the contrary, our research shows that a mother with four young children whose pictures have been splashed in the newspapers are extremely unlikely to try to hide." The Ay family's behaviour during their four and a half months in Germany supports her argument. They have made no attempts to evade the authorities and have enjoyed relative freedom - living in the community, attending the local school and registering with the police once a month while their new asylum application is processed. The school of the three older children is four kilometres from their home. They walk there and back every day because money is tight and bus passes are considered a luxury. When their mother asked the headteacher if they could be given bus tickets, he said no - but added that because they were asylum -seekers, it did not matter if they did not bother attending school. That they do is testament to their fierce desire for an education. We leave their school and join them on the long walk home. Dilovan clearly relishes having another boy to chat to. He offers to carry one of the photographer's lens cases and they saunter ahead, discussing, among other things, the fortunes of Celtic. Meanwhile, Beriwan and Newroz talk about their life in Germany and their worries for their mother. Last week, says Beriwan, she translated a letter from her GP. "I think she's not very well," she says. The family's latest home is a large, sparsely furnished three-bedroomed flat on the edge of Kirchen. The walls of the sitting room are adorned with photographs of the children with their father in Kent; and of Mrs Ay's brothers and sisters, all of whom have been given asylum in other European countries. In the UK, several people blamed Mrs Ay for the prolonged detention of her children. When I asked Beverley Hughes earlier this year if she had any regrets about the way the family were treated in the UK, she said I should remember that the four children were born on the move. "The family had a history of absconding. It was necessary to detain them and what happened after detention was really as a result of decisions they took." It was not only Home Office ministers who felt Mrs Ay was responsible. Muriel Gray, a columnist with the Sunday Herald, argued that Dungavel was a short-term detention centre and that the "well -meaning people" who feared for the Ay family should have taken their protests directly to Mrs Ay, "for it was she who made sure they stayed put and not the immigration officers who wanted them quickly returned to where they legally belonged". In one respect she was right. Under the terms of the Dublin Convention - under which asylum-seekers in Europe are supposed to be dealt with in their first country of entry - the Ay family had no legal right to remain in the UK, not just because they entered the country illegally in the back of a lorry but because they were "third-country applicants". In other words, they had previously tried, and failed, to get asylum in another European country. However, human rights organisations argued that the German authorities had a history of disregarding the situation in Turkey and rejecting asylum applications. The children's father, Salih, was deported to Germany in March 2002, then to Instanbul in May. The family has heard nothing of him since. According to Mrs Ay, she and her husband fled their home town of Sirnak, a village in the south -east of Turkey which was under a state of emergency between 1987 and 2002, after she lost her first baby when she was imprisoned by military police. Beriwan is sitting on one side of her mother, with Newroz on the other. Both have a protective hand on her lap. Dilovan has gone out to play football and Medya is imitating the photographer. Translating for her mother, Beriwan says: "My mum was eight months pregnant with my big sister. It was her first baby and one day the police came to my mum's house and said, 'Where's your husband?' My mum said, 'He's not here,' so they took my mum to the police station and they pushed her and said bad languages. Then they put her in a freezing cell for some days. After that my dad came and said, 'Why did you take my wife?' So they took my dad and freed my mum, but because it was so freezing she lost her baby. The next year, when my mum was four months pregnant with me, my mum and dad said not again and they decided to leave Turkey." It is impossible to corroborate Mrs Ay's story. However, Kerim Yildiz, the executive director of the Kurdistan Human Rights Project, says Kurdish people are still denied their basic human rights in Turkey. "Sirnak is well-known for being one of the areas where Kurds are most persecuted. The majority of Kurdish women who are taken into detention are also sexually assaulted, and being hosed with frozen water or kept in frozen conditions is not unusual." Although none of the Ay children was born in Turkey - two were born in Germany and two in Greece - all have traditional Kurdish names. Newroz translates from the Kurdish language as "new day", and refers to the first day of spring, when the Kurdish new year begins. According to Yildiz, a widespread campaign for the right of Kurds to speak in the Kurdish language and use Kurdish names continues to lead to arrests in Turkey. He also claims that failed asylum-seekers are routinely arrested and interrogated on their return to the country. "There is a law in Turkey banning people from criticising Turkey abroad. People are not allowed to insult the Turkish state, the Turkish republic or the founder of the Turkish republic. There is a strong likelihood that Mr Ay will have been detained when he returned to Turkey and questioned. The fact he has since disappeared suggests he may still be in prison." Beriwan and Newroz agree that life in Germany is far better than the time they spent in Scotland. "It's better because we're free to go to school," says Beriwan. "And it's much better than if we are sent to Turkey but we still don't know if we're allowed to stay, so I'm still scared. I'm scared of seeing the police. Sometimes they arrive in school for some other troubles but I think they've come to pick me up." Beriwan still dreams of becoming a lawyer but says she is not sure she'll make it. "The system in Germany is different from England. I think you get a few chances in England but not that many in Germany, and I don't think I could become a lawyer here in Germany because if you don't have a passport you can't get a good job. But in England it's not like that. I would like to go to university in England, then get a job and settle down." Newroz, who is quieter and more introspective, still hopes to become a doctor. In a quiet voice, she says: "Sometimes when I go to bed it reminds me of Dungavel. In the morning when I wake up I open my eyes and I have to look around to see if I'm still in the detention centre. I still get so nervous because you never know, when the phone goes, what the news is going to be. And every day when I walk home from school, I look up at the window ledge - that's where my mum will have put any mail - and I wonder if it's got bad news." Having devoted their lives to the search for somewhere to call home, it is not surprising that Beriwan and Newroz observe their contemporaries with an unsympathetic curiosity. "Do you know," Beriwan says quizzically, "that there are girls who get very upset because they have split up with their boyfriend? I think, oh my God, people worry about such stupid little things. All my life I've been running and sometimes hiding, like a timid little mouse from a big fat hungry black cat, scared of being caught and sent 'home' to a country I've never even seen. It's a weird life. It's a horrible life." I tell her she has been through more in her 15 years than most people experience in a lifetime and say she is very strong. She shakes her head. "I don't really have any choice," she says, before leaning towards her mum to give her a kiss.

December 02, 2003: Three Algerian asylum seekers carry out a roof top protest at the Dungavel Centre in Lanarkshire. Names unknown.

Use of force on a Congolese women 25th Oct 2003: The Mirror journalist described what one of the Group4 DCSs working at Yarl’s Wood during the time covered by the Yarl’s Wood VC report allegedly said to recent new Group4 recruits in a training session - "[DCS Mr D] told the trainees about some trouble over the previous weekend. A Congolese woman identified as Ms A was being deported. She was taken into the Removal from Association area in case she started to 'play up'. [DCS Mr D] said: 'We were taking a detainee into RFA on Saturday because we had got intelligence on her. But one shift manager decided that only female DCOs would be in the C&R team. So three females went in and two got hurt. One was bitten. So we changed it and two males and a female went in and splattered her.'". The Congolese detainee was naked and a male Group4 staff took her legs - the Prison Service's leading exponent of C&R training said he did not see a need for the [Group4] men to become involved. The Congolese detainee does not know what the so-called “intelligence” on her was and told us that Group4 refused to tell her where she was being taken – she was later taken to the airport for removal and she claims she was not given any Removal Notice, so the removal would have been in breach of Immigration Notices Regulations 2003 section 4.1. She says the Air France pilot refused to allow her and the immigration escorts to fly as she was inadequately dressed and screaming in fear. That all happened in the early hours of the Saturday morning. The detainee says she was returned to Yarl’s Wood around 10pm the same day and was put straight into Segregation before being transferred to Dungavel Removal Centre around 6pm Sunday. Source

October 2003: 10-year-old Ukrainian, Kostya Loban, and his parents are released after three weeks detention inside Dungavel Removal Centre. Kostya was woken by an arrest team in his Glasgow bedroom in early October and taken to the detention centre near Strathaven. His parents, Aleksander, who is a Christian, and Tanya, who is Jewish, maintain that they cannot return to the Ukraine because they fear race and religious persecution. Kostya recalled how his  first reaction had been to hide under the duvet when he woke to find four uniformed men in his bedroom. The arrest team, some of whom were said to be wearing bulletproof vests, handcuffed Kostya's father, while his mother was searched and undressed in the bathroom. he three were then taken by three women and around six men in two police vans to Dungavel. During the 40-minute journey, Kostya vomited. I was scared," said the young Ukrainian, now in his 10th day of detention. "They treated me bad. They shouted 'Get up, get dressed, sit down'. It was like being in the army. They wouldn't let me take pictures, my toys, or my pencils." But most distressing, he says, was the moment officers asked him to choose between his parents. "I picked my mum because she was crying most. I didn't know where we were going. It made me feel bad." He added: "Why am I in jail? I don't want to fly away. I want to go back to my school and my teacher." Kostya Loban was one of four children under the age of 11 who were detained in the former prison in South Lanarkshire.

November 7, 2003: Fetnet Pllana, 33, and her three children, who were being held at the Dungavel Detention Centre in Lanarkshire, were yesterday ordered on to a flight to Germany where the authorities are expected to return them to Kosovo.  But yesterday, five years after arriving in Britain to start a new life as a family, their plans lay in tatters. Mrs Pllana fled Kosovo in 1992 with her three children Hotman, nine, Lora, eight, and Labinet, six. Speaking at Dungavel days before she was deported, Mrs Pllana said: 'I am shocked at the way we have been treated. I do not want to have to go back to Kosovo. My children have no future there.'  Scottish Socialist MSP Rosie Kane said the mother and three children had grown accustomed to life in Britain and it was inhumane to move them.

September 22, 2003: Three weeks of uncertainty fear and being kept in a former prison have finally come to an end for a family of Kosovan asylum seekers. Rosa Tusha together with her children Alfred nine Armand six and Veronica three were released from the Dungavel immigration centre in Scotland on Friday to the relief of campaigners who have battled for their freedom.  Officials swooped on the family's home in St Leonard's Road Southend last month and after being taken to Southend police station and Oakington Reception Centre Cambridgeshire the family were moved to Dungavel. Now thanks to the efforts of solicitor Sally McEwen and volunteers Jan Noble and June Manzoini from the Clarence Road-based group Churches and Refugees Together the family are back home in south Essex.

September 12, 2003:

Bushra Sharif and her three children, Abdullah, 7, Talal, 6, and Bassam, 13 months, are released on bail after being held for more than three weeks in Dungavel. They were granted refugee status in August last year after an adjudicator ruled Mrs Sharif had a well-founded fear of persecution and had been involved in an abusive marriage. Her lawyer has applied for a judicial review. Abdullah's own words

September 4,2003:

Mercy Ikolo and her one-year-old daughter Percieliz are released from Dungavel Removal Centre after a campaign begun by Positive Action in Housing and taken up by the  Sunday Herald. Rosie Kane MSP agreed to provide a home for Mercy which allowed the mother and child to be freed.

September 4, 2003: A MOTHER held inside a controversial detention centre for asylum seekers has been fined her £3.50 basic weekly allowance for taking food to her room to feed her children. Somalian mother- of- two Fatima Jailana Muse was fined the weekly allowance by Dungavel bosses for a series of trivial offences, including taking Weetabix to her room to feed her one-year-old child. Mrs Muse, 33, is one of several mothers who complain they are finding it difficult to feed their children because of the rigid regime inside the Lanarkshire detention centre. The women claim the last food available is at 5.30pm, with nothing else until the morning, despite the centre housing children as young as one. Food is not allowed to be taken into the rooms, leaving many complaining their children are in danger of becoming malnourished. Mrs Muse claims her daughters Nasra, one, and Nasteho, who will be three on Saturday, were not eating properly at the specified meal times, forcing her to take the cereal to her room. She added: 'My baby is small and she has trouble eating.' The latest controversy at Dungavel follows a report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons last month which criticised some aspects of the regime. The former prison, run by the private company Premier Detention Services, holds up to 148 failed asylum seekers and other immigration detainees. Last week there was a record number of 23 children at the centre, although seven have since been deported. The HM Chief Inspector's Report said the long-term detention of children in immigration removal centres must stop and described facilities for school age children as 'unsatisfactory'.  A Home Office spokesman said food was not allowed to be eaten in rooms for hygiene reasons. He added: 'Mothers can bottlefeed their babies in their room and milk kitchens are provided for them in addition to the canteen facilities.' more

September 3, 2003: WHEN 18-month-old Destina Polat was taken into detention, the first thing officers did was photograph her and take her finger-prints. She was giggling, according to her parents, Ibrahim and Donus, because she thought it was some kind of game. Her parents, however, Kurdish asylum seekers from Turkey who lived in the south side of Glasgow for two-and-a-half years before being detained, were crying and distressed. Donus, 22, her mother, said she refused food and water for six days. The baby is one of 17 children held at Dungavel immigration removal centre, a former prison in South Lanarkshire.  Speaking through an interpreter, Mrs Polat said: "I was begging them to let my baby out, to keep me here if they wanted, but to let my baby out and to give her to her uncle (who lives in Edinburgh). "But they said if I couldn't look after her they would look after her so I started to eat." Ghazala Ahmed, a lawyer representing Donus Polat has also raised concerns about detainees access to foodstuffs for their children: "I'm very concerned because although the authorities say detainees have access to milk 24 hours a day, it is kept in a locked room, and there is no interpreter."

September 3, 2003: An Iranian asylum-seeker, was kept in isolation for four days after he threw a plate. He was vomiting blood, passing blood and his nose was bleeding. When his lawyer saw him he was doubled over in pain but he was put in an isolation unit. (Source: Herald)

August 23, 2003:  In a previous contract with the private providers of the facilities at Dungavel, the government included a clause on education provision, which read: "The contractor will establish a programme of activities which will include primary and secondary education devised in conjunction with the local education authority which meets the needs of relevant education."

A spokesperson for the Home Office said that there was no national commitment to providing education for asylum seekers because of the particular needs of the demographic, meaning that the national picture has to be "flexible". He emphasised that in the case of Dungavel 80% of children spent under six weeks at the centres and only 3% were remained for over 14 weeks. He added that the 3% was largely attributable to the Ay family, a Kurdish family of four children who were last week deported to Germany after spending over a year in Dungavel - causing the chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, to condemned the use of detention centres to house children. (Source)

August 15, 2003:

Not forgotten -  Click here to see the Ay family's page - the children's story, drawings and pictures

ONE in five of the inmates at Scotland's detention centre for asylum seekers are children. Dungavel House in South Lanarkshire has been criticised by prison and education watchdogs for locking up children - some under the age of five - and failing to educate them properly. A report by Anne Owers, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, said 17 per cent of detainees are 16 or under. It revealed that children were forced to spend 'many months' in the centre - and that the education provided for them at taxpayers' expense fell seriously short of basic standards. It also painted a shambolic picture of the whole asylum system, which it said is open to abuse. The report comes in the wake of the controversial case of the Ay family of Kurdish asylum seekers, including four children, who were smuggled into Britain four years ago. They were held at Dungavel for a year and finally deported last week after costing taxpayers more than 500,000. Dungavel holds those detained by the Immigration Service as overstayers, illegal entrants or failed asylum seekers. It also holds some detainees whose cases have not yet been determined, but are at risk of absconding. The report said: 'Seventeen per cent of the (106) detainees at the time of the inspection were children (up to 16 years old). We came across families who had spent months in the centre. There were serious shortfalls in educational provision. In addition, because families and children were locked into the family unit, they needed to ask staff if they wished to go out; at the time of the inspection, children had insufficient play areas and outside access.' Two-thirds of detainees had been in detention elsewhere. The report said: 'Some appeared to be shunted up and down the country in a way that demonstrated little strategic planning and little concern for either their welfare as people or the public purse.' One family arrived at Dungavel from Harmondsworth Detention Centre in West London - a journey of roughly 400 miles. They spent one day at Dungavel before being taken to Manchester Airport Detention Centre, where they spent the night. They were then sent to Tinsley House - only 43 miles from Harmondsworth. The report revealed children are used as interpreters at Dungavel. One young girl translated as her father described how he had been attacked and beaten by Serbian police. She broke down and the interview was called off. The report calls for changes to the system to make detention of children 'an exceptional course - no more than a matter of days'. A separate report released yesterday by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education backed this view. Home Office Minister Hazel Blears said: 'It is regrettable that families with children have to be detained at all, but it is the actions of the adults in the families that make this necessary. It is not typical for families to be detained for a long time. Those that are have often strung out the appeals process and exhausted all legal right to remain in this country.'

Dec 3 2002 Janet McGregor wed her fiance Amir Fayyaz  inside dungavel Removal Centre after immigration officials seized him fours days before the planned ceremony.  Now the mum-of-five is fighting a bid to deport her husband in less than two weeks' time. The 35-year-old fears Amir, 31, will be killed if he is sent back to Pakistan. Janet said: "I would end up a widow, I am sure of it. "If Amir gets sent back, he will be killed because of his political beliefs. That is why he had to leave." She added: "I couldn't live without Amir now and I will do everything in my power to make sure he stays in Scotland." Janet, of Tamfourhill, Falkirk, said she has known Amir for three years and the relationship blossomed into romance a year and a half ago. She said immigration officials burst into her home last week and took her husband- to-be away in an early-morning raid. Janet said: "We were asleep when they came and just took him away without an explanation. Janet had planned to wed Amir at Falkirk Register's Office but switched the ceremony to Dungavel Detention Centre in Lanarkshire. She said: "We had our wedding day last Wednesday and I got to spend six hours with him but we weren't allowed to be alone. "The kids and myself have visited him every day but they won't let us kiss or cuddle him." Janet said her lawyer planned to appeal against Amir's deportation on December 15.  Last night, a spokesman for Falkirk West Labour MP Eric Joyce said: "The staff at Dungavel should be congratulated for carrying out the wedding, given the circumstances. "Eric has visited Dungavel and is convinced the regime is fair and robust. "He will continue to look into the circumstances surrounding this case."

November 5, 2002:  Lord Avebury took up the case of Jaqueline Kunan, an asylum seeker from Ivory Coast. Her case was reported on "Woman's Hour" yesterday morning. She was in Harmondsworth from June, then detained in Dungavel, and then returned to Harmondsworth on 21 October. She has had three solicitors, one of whom, it appears, did not do a particularly good job. She has with her a baby who was born a year and a half ago, and she is again pregnant. Jaqueline Kunan's claim is one that would normally be regarded as fundamentally unfounded, on the basis that the judgment given by the authorities was that she had not made out her case for asylum from Ivory Coast-a country where a military coup and takeover have occurred. However, Lord Avebury was able to substantiate independently the facts that the woman alleged, and in a way that made her case clear." Source

September 14, 2002: The average cost of detaining an asylum seeker, says the Home Office, is £29,400 a year, yet the weekly cost of holding someone at Oakington detention centre in Cambridgeshire is £1,620 a week (around pounds 85,000 a year), according to a parliamentary question answered in October last year. Two government-funded companies, UK Detention Services, which runs Harmondsworth, and Premier Custodial Services, which runs Dungavel, have a combined turnover of pounds 109,567,196. (Source: The Guardian)

September 14, 2002: Françoise, a 21-year-old from Cameroon, arrived in the UK in June 2001. She spent most of her pregnancy in detention. When we met, she and her baby had been locked up for five of his six months. Françoise was either sold or given away when she was four years old, and brought up in a Muslim farming family. When she was 17, she was told that she would become one of her foster father's wives. When she refused, she was locked up and beaten. She ran away. On arrival in Britain, she was held at Oakington detention centre, where asylum seekers are fast-tracked through the process by in-house lawyers. Her asylum plea was rejected and she was dispersed to Leeds, pending an appeal. Soon after arriving, she discovered that she was pregnant. When Françoise got to the Leeds address given to her by the Home Office National Asylum Support Service (Nass), she was told that there was no room and so was sent on elsewhere. Her lawyer at the time told her that she didn't need to inform Nass because he had her details and would keep in touch. Her baby was born prematurely, at 34 weeks. She spent three weeks in hospital in Leeds, then went back to the flat she'd been allocated. A week later, "They came for me at 7am. They said, 'Your case is over, you are going into detention.' They started to put my things into bags. I could not even tell the health visitor that we were going." Unfortunately, her asylum paperwork had not kept up with her and notification of her appeal hearing had been sent to the wrong address. It was rejected without her having a chance to speak for herself. "She fell into the gap that many dispersed and bewildered asylum seekers experience," says her current lawyer, Eileen Bye. In Françoise's absence, her case was turned down and she was detained pending removal. It doesn't seem to have mattered that she knew nothing of the hearing, let alone that she had a month-old premature baby. "How can they remove me when they have not heard my case?" she asks. "What will happen to him if I go back? I have no money, no family." As Bye says, "The experience of immigration detention has difficulties beyond just deprivation of liberty. It is the uncertainty that most undermines the spirit: they do not know how long they might be detained; they do not know, and have reason to fear, the outcome. The sense of isolation is heightened because they have no friends able to visit them. They're alone with their fear and uncertainty." Françoise is very much alone and depressed. Dungavel detention centre, where she is held at the time of writing, is way off the beaten track - it takes seven hours from London, where her friends are, and that's travelling by plane, bus, train and, if you're lucky, the free minibus that goes every two hours. Dungavel is surrounded by high fences with razor wire. It's no place for an adult, let alone a child, but for Françoise and her baby UK detention centres have become home. Four weeks after his birth, she was taken to Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire, the detention centre that burned down in February. "They were locked in when it went up in flames," says Bye, "and in the panic and the smoke Françoise didn't know if she and the baby would survive. Other detainees helped them escape, then they waited outside to be re-detained. They lost everything - their few personal possessions, clothes, all her Home Office papers and the baby's birth certificate." After Yarl's Wood, Françoise was taken to Harmondsworth, where she suffered an attempt to put her on a plane back to Cameroon."They came to me and said, 'Give your baby to the nurse, we need to weigh him.' I said, 'No, I'll come to the medical centre with him if he needs attention.' When I was there, they took him from me, then put me in the van to the airport. They only gave him back when I was in the van. It was a trick. But in the end there was no place for me on that plane, so they brought me back. Because they came to take my baby, I am worried all the time, whenever I hear keys. I can't sleep at night - a small noise and I'm awake. I walk around at night. Just walk, walk." After three months at Harmondsworth, they came for her again early one morning and took her to Dungavel. There was no explanation. "You don't have any information about when you will be moved or released," says Françoise. "You don't know if tomorrow you're going to be here. In the night, neighbours disappear. They told me detention is not prison, but it is. You can't see people, get fresh air. You can't enjoy your baby. Tell me, why should they keep us here? How can I run away when I have a baby and no money?" source

September 2, 2002: Health: Records of maternal and infant health are not available. With some asylum seekers put in detention on arrival and others placed in emergency accommodation or induction centres, maternal health is poor. Average birth weight of asylum seekers' babies is significantly lower than the norm, with higher rates of perinatal mortality. Detainees in Dungavel Centre are paid GBP 1 a week. Detention: A recent Scottish parliamentary visit to Dungavel removal centre found there was "no justification for the detention of children" and that the detainees had committed no crimes. It also noted there was a failure to collect statistics, for example on self-harm. Statistics like these and the number of pregnant asylum-seekers are key in monitoring the asylum-seeking system. (Source: The Scotsman)

July 30, 2002: The number of children held will increase significantly from those currently imprisoned in the 300 "family rooms" at Harmondsworth, in Middlesex, and Dungavel, in Scotland. These places are far from cosy: they have security equivalent to category B prisons, uniformed officers roam the corridors, nurseries look out to high walls topped with razor wire. (Source: The Guardian)

June 3, 2002: Nikola Garza and her family were hoping for a life free of violence and intimidation when they arrived in Britain in March, 2001, from their native Slovakia. Nikola's mother Agata Garza, 34, and her husband, Dusan, 32, are members of the Romani minority, traditionally travellers, who are still persecuted in Eastern Europe. Nikola, 13, and her brother, Adrian, 12, were considered mixed -race and were picked on at school in their home town of Kosice. When Agata was pregnant with baby Vanesa, she was attacked by racist skinheads while out shopping in Kosice. Vanesa was born two months prematurely as a result and suffered brain damage. Now almost two, Vanesa has impaired vision and hearing, cannot talk, or even crawl. After their arrival in Britain last year, the family was eventually housed in a flat in Gateshead - after spending weeks in other English towns - while their plea for asylum was considered. They settled well and made friends. Adrian and Nikola, without a word of English on arrival, fared well at school and Nikola was placed on a national register for academically gifted children. Vanesa began to get the medical attention she desperately needed, and her condition - as did the plight of the whole family - attracted media attention. Early in March this year, the family's Gateshead flat was entered by immigration officers who gave them an hour to pack before taking them to Dungavel, a former prison in Ayrshire, now a detention centre for asylum -seekers. Six weeks later, the scene was played out again and the family was moved to Harmondsworth, a detention centre in Middlesex, where they were on the verge of being deported. The family's initial application for asylum was made in Dusan's name and was rejected, as was a subsequent appeal. The family's lawyer, Azmina Hansraj, had to find another way to prevent the deportation. She made a fresh application on Vanesa's behalf this time. While immigration officials refused to consider it, a judge intervened at the last minute and said the new application had to be considered. A few days later, the family was allowed to return to Gateshead. Although they are technically not prisoners, because they have left a detention centre, they have been granted bail, which has been put up for them by the Moon family (see diary, below). The legal process, meanwhile, grinds on. The following is Nikola Garza's view of her time spent under the control of the British authorities.

 NIKOLA'S DIARY GATESHEAD, 9 MARCH, 2002 IT WAS 7: 30 in the morning. There was a knock on the door. Everybody was asleep, except for my Dad (Dusan) and me. He opened the door and saw six or seven people in front of him. He was nervous because he didn't know what was happening. One of the men said: "I am from immigration, they have sent me to get you to Scotland. You have got one hour to pack your things." Then a police officer entered the house and came into my bedroom. I was so scared of him. I thought this was surely a dream. Then I stood up and wanted to put my clothes on, but they wouldn't let us be by ourselves. In every room there was an immigration person or policeman. I went to the toilet and I put my clothes on. Then I went to my Mum's (Agata's) room, grabbed a suitcase and started to pack my clothes. Then I put my little sister, Vanesa's clothes on and put her back in the cot. We didn't know what was happening. I was so scared and so was my family. We got all our bags packed and were taken out of the house. My Mum, Vanesa and me got into a blue car, my brother Adrian and my Dad got into a white police van and we were all taken to a police station. When we went in there, the police took our pictures and checked our bags and us. One of the officers said: "You are going to Scotland for three or four days." They gave us some papers and we were put back in the van. It was so long a road to Scotland from Newcastle. I took that time to think. I was thinking about all my friends and my school in Gateshead and that I wouldn't see them again. I was nearly crying. It was so cold in the van. My Dad asked to put the heating on.

DUNGAVEL DETENTION CENTRE We arrived at Dungavel House at three o'clock the same day. They took our pictures and finger prints. They took us to a little room and asked if we were hungry. We were because we hadn't had any breakfast or lunch, but the food was horrible. We went back to reception and they gave us our jewellery and watches back and two officers took us to the family unit. There were two officers with us, one called Andrea the other Sandra, and they told us they were going to get a nurse to check that we were OK. But I wasn't listening to them, I was just thinking, "What is happening to my family?" And my brother, he was so scared and upset. We went to the children's activity room and played table tennis. We felt a little bit happier then, but there were no other children there. Later they called us to dinner and after, we went to our room and my Mum and Dad phoned a friend of theirs asking what would happen to us now and she told us that the immigration people were probably wanting to deport us and told us if we got any more news to call them. 10 MARCH We woke up and went for breakfast and later we were all very sad. Someone came and asked me what do I like to do, and I told them I like art, so I went to the activity room and was brought lots of art stuff.

10 MARCH ONWARDS So it went, day after day. The officers were very friendly but we always had feelings which I can't describe. At night I always woke up thinking that I was not in my room. And there were always problems. My little sister Vanesa didn't want to eat anything for two weeks. I think she knew that she wasn't at home. I wanted to ask my mother what was happening but I didn't want to hurt her with my feelings. I spent my 13th birthday in the detention centre. Every Wednesday our loveliest family friends from Gateshead came to visit us - my auntie Joan and my uncle, Jeff Moon. They came on my birthday and brought me a present. I love them and don't want to lose them. Nicola and her family were then transferred from Dungavel Detention Centre, near Strathaven, Lanarkshire, to Harmondsworth Detention Centre in Middlesex.

HARMONDSWORTH DETENTION CENTRE, 12 APRIL Six weeks have gone by at Dungavel. Early in the morning there was a knock at the door. A lady said to us: "You've got half an hour to get ready." My Mum asked "Why?" The lady said we were going to another detention centre. My Mum talked to the immigration officers and asked why we were going away. They didn't know. After breakfast we were taken to reception and we had to get into a van again. I was crying because I started to like this place and now were leaving. It took about four hours to get to Manchester, then we went to an airport. We were taken to a room somewhere and spent about six hours there. Then two officers came and told us we were now going to London. Then we were in a van again. It was very cold. My Mum and Dad were tired and very upset. It was the middle of the night when we arrived at the new centre. Again they took our things and took my Mum and Dad's pictures and finger prints. My Mum and me and my brother and sister were told we could go to our room. My Dad was to come later, he was going to see a nurse. I saw there were only three beds there. I asked: "Where is my Dad going to sleep?" She said he was going to sleep on the floor, on a mat. When my Dad came back, he was very angry. I told him I would swap with him and he could sleep on the bed, but he said: "No." I was very tired and slept quickly.

13 APRIL We looked around the centre and I met another girl from Slovakia. I played with her. Our family were now given two rooms to sleep in.

14 APRIL ONWARDS It was every day the same. I wasn't happier because my friend went back to Slovakia. At least she understood my feelings.

7 MAY The officers called us to reception. They gave us our bags and took us to a van. We were upset and crying. We were expecting now to be deported. We left in the van and then the van turned around again and went back to the centre. We were not going to be deported this time. They took our pictures and finger prints again. Then we went back to the family unit. I thought that perhaps no-one liked us because we are a Romani family. The immigration people want to send us back to Slovakia because they don't like us. I was missing my friends and my teachers in Gateshead. I have seen that in this country, colour of the skin is not a problem, like in Slovakia.

13 MAY It was 2pm. I was sitting in the classroom at the centre and someone came in and told me that my Mum wanted to see me, and that were free now. I was laughing. My Mum was very happy and told me to pack my things. Again, we were back in reception and were given our papers and let outside. They gave us travel tickets, some money and paid for a taxi. The taxi driver took us to King's Cross train station. We got the 6: 41pm to Newcastle. In the train I was thinking of the Moons. I couldn't wait to see them. When we got to Newcastle we got a taxi to their house. Everyone was happy.

GATESHEAD 18 MAY The days were going really fast. Everybody was happy, except my Mum was worrying a bit that the deportation business was still not finished. I like it in Joan and Jeff's house. I wish to get my own house like this one day.

20 MAY It's morning. My dad came to wake me up. Today Adrian and I were going back to school. I was so happy, but feeling shy as well. Joan came with us. There was some paper work to do. She told us not to worry about anything. When we went to our classrooms, everyone said hello. Mr Carlton (my teacher) gave me a big hug. Everybody was happy we were back. I saw all my friends. Every lesson, it was the same, everyone said hello, everyone was glad to see us back.

21 MAY The day at school was much like yesterday. But everything was getting back to normal now. I felt so much happier in Gateshead than in the detention centres.

The Garza family are still staying with the Moon family in Gateshead but are hoping to get their own flat again soon.

(Source: The Scotsman)

May 2002: James Awesole arrived from Nigeria and claimed asylum immediately on arrival in the UK after his father was murdered. He was immediately taken to prison and then Yarlswood before being transferred to Dungavel (after the Yarlswood fire in February). His asylum application was live and he had never absconded. He had been in detention for nine months. He has since won bail and is living in the community, without any funds or the right to work. This man is awaiting a judicial review; he was not a failed asylum seeker and he had never absconded.

May 2002: Meena Sharma and her son were living in England for seven years and were put into detention. Meena’s son was studying for A’ levels at the time they were picked up. Shortly after, they won the right to bail and are living back in the community in England. This family were not failed asylum seekers and they had never absconded.

14 May, 2002: The Daily Record was yesterday allowed into the controversial Dungavel detention centre for the first time. The PR men proudly showed off its hotel -like facilities. But one thing was missing - what the asylum-seeker inmates themselves had to say... DUNGAVEL detention centre is a strange sight - an elegant old former shooting lodge surrounded by 20-foot fences. And yesterday was a strange day at the one-time prison, now used to lock up troublesome asylum seekers and their children. Since it began housing families awaiting deportation from Britain, Dungavel has seen suicide attempts and protests over conditions. MSPs have criticised the number of families being held, and expressed concern at the standard of health care. Stung by criticism that this is no place for children, the Government gave the Press a guided tour yesterday to prove it has nothing to hide. We heard plenty from Scotland Office Minister George Foulkes, and from the manager of the privately-run centre. But one group of people were denied a voice - the detainees. Journalists who safeguard sources' identities every day were ordered to stay away from inmates "to protect their privacy". Some asylum seekers failed to appreciate their captors' concern. They clearly wanted to talk. One man made his feelings clear from a distance. "It's a f****** prison," he yelled. Dungavel, near Strathaven, Lanarkshire, opened as a detention centre in September last year. It now houses 74 asylum seekers, including eight children. The youngest is six months old. Most are waiting to be thrown out of the country. They can be here for up to six months. The place is bright and clean, with fake flowers in communal rooms. But according to activists who speak up for the inmates, a few subtle changes were made before the visit of the Press. In the entrance hall, we saw a painting of sunset over Glencoe. A social activity notice board showed smiley shots of detainees and staff members at football matches and curry nights. But when Jim Henry, of Friends of the Refugees, visited last week, the decor was a little different. Jim said: "There were posters laying down the rules on visits. "One said physical contact is limited to greeting and leaving the detainee. Another listed banned gifts, like toiletries, toys and clothes. "How odd that they weren't there when journalists turned up." Before the MSPs visited recently, detainees who had criticised conditions were moved to other centres. Among them was Romanov Voltsov, a young Russian who cut his wrists after claiming he had been refused access to art equipment. The inmates who remain are housed in spacious rooms, decorated in pastel shades. They can win prizes of vouchers by playing table tennis, or winning the "clean dormitory contest". Competition for the vouchers is fierce. Detainees without cash of their own are only given pounds 3.50 a week to spend in the shop on site. Staff provide basic toiletries, clothes and toys. As the vanished posters made clear, presents from outside are forbidden. Under-fives held at Dungavel can play in a freshly painted creche with animal characters on the walls. The dining room tries to cater for each inmate. A cultural officer works to make sure the detainees' beliefs are respected, and medical care is available 24 hours a day. The library is stacked with books in many languages, and detainees can learn English and information technology. Other facilities include a gym, hairdressing, and laundry rooms. It seems about the only thing not on offer is freedom. Detainees can move around by day, but they have to ask permission to leave their locked sectors at night. Inmates' rooms are not locked, but certain areas are off-limits. In most jails, this would be highly liberal. But Dungavel is no jail. Jim Henry said: "The issue is not the facilities. They are fine. "The issue is locking up asylum seekers, some only children, when they have committed no crime." Foulkes admitted the presence of children was "regrettable". But he added: "It is necessary to detain families with children because the adults present a risk of absconding or their claims need to be assessed. "It's better not to split families." Foulkes also rejected the MSPs' report on Dungavel, claiming it contained "a number of inaccuracies". Dungavel's manager, Richard Smalley, of private jail firm Premier, insisted: "The detainees, almost without exception, are extremely happy with the facilities. "They may not want to be in detention, which is understandable. But, while they are, this is probably the best place to be." Mr Smalley insisted the decision to move outspoken inmates was not linked to the MSPs' visit. Asked about the Voltsov case, he said: "He self-harmed for different reasons. He had problems and was cared for by medical staff." Mr Smalley said Voltsov was never put in isolation, as has been claimed. But he admitted Dungavel has five isolation rooms, where inmates can be taken to "cool down for a couple of hours". (Daily Record)

22 April 2002: THE Home Office has denied that 40 asylum seekers at Dungavel detention centre, near Strathaven in Lanarkshire, have taken part in a hunger strike. Government minister Angela Eagle said that some detainees had staged a 'non -compliance day' - refusing to get out of bed, take part in education and refusing to eat in the dining hall. But she added that they continued to buy food from the centre's shop. The protest was over the time taken to deal with their cases.

15 April 2002: A NUMBER of high-profile asylum seekers have been moved from the controversial Dungavel detention centre ahead of a visit by MSPs, it emerged yesterday. The cross-party group on asylum seekers and refugees is due to visit Dungavel tomorrow to assess conditions at the centre in the wake of last week's hunger strike by detainees. But they will not be able to meet some of the asylum seekers involved in a row about conditions at the centre in Strathaven in South Lanarkshire. Some of the most high-profile detainees have been moved to other centres, and some were removed after a fax from Shona Robison was sent to the Home Office, containing a list of the asylum seekers the MSPs wanted to meet. The list included Dusan and Agata Garza from Slovakia, who had raised concerns over the medical treatment on offer to their 22-month-old handicapped daughter Vanesa. They have been removed to the Harmondsworth detention centre in London. Romanov Voltsov, a young Russian who had tried to cut his wrists recently, and who was also on the list, was removed last week. A Nigerian economics graduate, Dotun Adeosun, who attempted suicide in February, was removed last Friday. Three of the original list of detainees requested by the MSPs are expected to be at the centre when the cross-party group visits tomorrow. However, Ms Robison said: "All the people who have been removed are people we requested to see. "I would be extremely concerned if any connection was to be established between us requesting to see people and the decision being taken to remove them. "I will be asking questions about this on Tuesday." A spokeswoman for the Home Office declined to comment on the removals but added: "If the cross-party group have concerns, it will be for them as a group to talk to the authorities at Dungavel." This latest controversy follows a week in which several detainees at Dungavel were outspoken about delays in their cases and some were involved in a hunger strike. Last week's hunger strike was short-lived but it focused attention on the detention centre which is used to house asylum seekers who have been refused entry to Britain and are either waiting for the results of appeals or for deportation. (Source: Scotsman)

April 14, 2002: THE Nigerian asylum seeker who tried to commit suicide by sticking an iron bar into his gut has been held at Lanarkshire's Dungavel detention centre, pictured right, since November 2000. His only crime was to think Britain might be a safe haven from persecution under the rotten dictatorship in his homeland. Yet he has spent 17 months locked up without any trying of his case. The most bloodstained member of a Scottish razor gang cannot be held for longer than 110 days without trial. The Home Office told BBC Scotland last week that it could not or would not say how many anonymous and frightened people were huddling in this increasingly infamous example of Scottish inhospitality. Yet the prison service can tell you at the drop of a jailer's hat how many prisoners there are at any one time. George Foulkes's visit to the hellhole last week was a masterclass in complacency. This Hearts fan should show more heart. The visit will come back to haunt him if the next suicide bid succeeds.(Source: Mail on Sunday)

April 14, 2002: THE Home Office has been accused of blocking the work of an influential Scottish parliamentary watchdog after a Roma family with a disabled child and a suicidal Nigerian asylum seeker were removed from Dungavel detention centre days before a visit from MSPs and charities. The former South Lanarkshire prison made headlines last week when desperate detainees mounted a hunger strike to highlight delays in handling their cases. The Scottish parliament's cross-party group on refugees and asylum seekers is to visit Dungavel on Tuesday on a fact-finding mission which has taken two months to arrange. The group had planned to meet with a list of 10 individuals or families to hear their views. On Friday, two of the highest profile members of that list - Nigerian Dotun Adeosun, and the Garza family from Slovakia - were removed from Scotland, leading to allegations that their departures are less than coincidental. The third name on the list, Romanov Votslov, a young Russian in his twenties who had recently attempted to cut his wrists, is thought to have been removed earlier in the week. All three cases had become political hot potatoes for the immigration service and campaigners now believe a deliberate policy is being adopted of fast -tracking the removal of those who are causing embarrassment to government policy or finding support in Scotland. Last week's hunger strike was short-lived, but it focused attention on what is really happening behind the six-foot fences surrounding the detention centre. Dungavel reopened in September and is now full. It has 148 places for "failed" asylum seekers, including a separate family wing with space for 56. The centre is only supposed to house "failed" asylum seekers for a short time before they are removed from the UK, usually because there is a fear that they may abscond. However, solicitors specialising in asylum issues and asylum seekers within Dungavel have confirmed to the Sunday Herald that it is regularly being used to house others who are much earlier in the process. Many are also held for much longer than was originally intended. The Home Office's own figures show that 28% of those in UK detention centres have been there for more than four months. Detainees complain of the mental torture imposed by being locked up without any knowledge of how long or short their stay will be, while campaigners are also concerned about the education and health facilities on offer for families such as the Garzas. The Home Office told us that "modular" education appropriate to the level of the individual child was being provided, with the local education authority, South Lanarkshire Council, supervising to ensure standards. However, a spokeswoman for the council said: "We have recently been contacted about the arrival of children at Dungavel, and as a result a meeting will shortly be held. So far we have only provided advice on educational provision." Shona Robison MSP, convener of the cross-party group, said she would be alarmed if individual detainees were being punished for raising their heads above the parapets. "We were hoping to speak to about 10 asylum seekers to find out what was really going on in Dungavel, but I am very concerned when some of these people are disappearing and nobody can get any information about them." This weekend, a leading race relations expert said there were serious concerns about accountability and human rights at Dungavel. Dr Elinor Kelly, of Glasgow University, said: "These people are being held by a private company which is not answerable to any kind of public body in Scotland. There is no public scrutiny of what is a very secretive and authoritarian regime. "International agencies, such as the UN High Commission on Refugees, are horrified at the arbitrary detention of people without any charge against them, being held for administrative convenience. There are constitutional issues here about human rights breaches on Scottish soil. " Scottish laws such as the 110-day rule, which prevents someone facing a criminal charge being held, do not apply to immigration cases, she added. "Nobody else in Britain can be held for four months without being brought before a tribunal. It is desperately alarming," Kelly said. "In Scotland, the Home Office can take advantage of the fact that this is a reserved matter to make it less accountable. The Scottish parliament is utterly impotent while international crimes are being committed on Scottish soil. We don't want Scotland being associated with the cheap and nasty side of the immigration system.'' A spokesperson for the Scottish Refugee Council, which will also be taking part in Tuesday's visit, said the organisation had ongoing concerns about Dungavel, particularly over the length of time people were being detained and the quality of education for children. Sally Daghlian, director of the SRC, said: "Britain continues to detain more asylum seekers for longer and with less scrutiny than any other European country. It is not surprising if people who are detained indefinitely take desperate measures to highlight their situation." While the Home Office proposes increasing the use of detention, especially for families, it has removed legal safeguards such as automatic bail hearings, she said. "The use of detention must be as a last resort and in accordance with international standards to ensure that all detainees have proper access to full legal, interpreting and health advice." Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, which was among the groups supporting both Adeosun and the Garza family, said ordinary Scots were becoming increasingly outraged at what was happening in their name. "As soon as anyone gets any support locally in the community, or any publicity, they are being ripped out," she said. "The government wants the public to think this is just a numbers game - you don't have to listen to the names or find out whether it is a little boy or girl, just send them out. Denying individuals, families and children human contact, education and proper health care are human rights abuses." A spokesman for the home office said: "Usually people in Dungavel are failed asylum seekers who are being detained prior to removal. In some cases it is necessary to detain people where there is a risk that they may abscond. Detention is not entered into lightly. We try to ensure it is used mainly to facilitate removal from the country and for as short a time as possible." While the cross-party group plans to press ahead with its visit, many asylum seekers at Dungavel can only watch and wait for a shake of their shoulder in the early hours, which is terrifying for detainees who imagined that they had left such treatment behind in their home countries. One Sri Lankan asylum seeker, who was on hunger strike at Dungavel last week, told the Sunday Herald: "I have been detained here for three months, and five months before that in prison. If I am deported I will be viewed as a terrorist in my country. My brain and mind tell me always: 'Kill yourself'. "Many people are still waiting here without answers. This is not a centre, it is a prison. We wake up in the morning and people are gone. We don't know what is going on." 'In this country my family is happy. Please don't send us back'

THEY came for the Garza family in the early hours of Friday. Dusan and Agata and their children Nikola, who was 13 on April 2, Adrian, 11, and Vanesa, 21 months, were woken by staff at Dungavel asylum detention centre and told to pack. They were taken by immigration officials, first to Manchester and then to Harmondsworth detention centre in London. From the back of the van taking them to Manchester Nikola discreetly used her mobile phone to contact Joan Moon, a former teacher living in Newcastle who had befriended the Garza family. "They didn't know what was happening and their solicitor hadn't been told that their appeal against removal had been turned down," Moon said. "She asked me why this was happening to them and I could only say 'I don't know, my love'." The Garzas fled to the UK after suffering persecution in Slovakia for being part of the Roma minority group. Vanesa was born prematurely after Agata was attacked by skinheads. The treatment she had been receiving treatment in Gateshead for developmental problems stopped when the family were relocated to Dungavel on March 9 this year. Nikola wrote to Home Secretary David Blunkett earlier this month. "I spent my birthday in detention centre," she wrote. "My little sister is 21 months old. She can't sit, can't walk and talk. She can't really see through her eyes. She missed her hearing test. She is having a healthy problems, but she is absolutely beautiful. In this country is my family very happy. Can you please to don't send us back to our country." On Friday the Garzas were told they were to be flown out of the UK within 24 hours. Their solicitor obtained a postponement but the Home Office has indicated that they will still be removed after April 24.

No-one knows when they came for Dotun Adeosun as he had been held separately from fellow refugees in Dungavel since a suicide bid two months ago. Friends last spoke to the Nigerian refugee in Dungavel on Thursday night, but when they attempted to contact him on Friday he had disappeared from the centre and staff were unable to confirm his whereabouts. Adeosun, 31, an economics graduate, made his suicide attempt out of desperation, having learned that he was to be deported. Yet he hadn't even wished to claim asylum in Britain. He arrived on a false passport in November 2000, fleeing from what he claimed was certain torture and likely death if he was returned to Nigeria. He had crossed the Ogboni, a secret society whose members include many in power. The Home Office's own country list describes the Ogboni thus: "The Ogboni are reputed to threaten its members with death should they break their oath of secrecy regarding its rituals and beliefs. It is still regarded as being a powerful organisation throughout Nigeria." He tried to seek refuge elsewhere in Europe but was stopped as he tried to leave Britain and told to claim asylum on Christmas Eve, 2000. Since then, he has spent 15 months in detention, in prison and latterly in Dungavel. In a statement he said: "Before, I had no medical problems, but since the detention I have suffered self-harm, headaches, frustration, lack of sleep, suicidal thoughts and loss of appetite. "I feel rejected and dejected. My whole world has crumbled and my life is hanging on a cobweb thread. I am just breathing. I have paid my dues for no charge, served my sentence for no crime. The government should have allowed me to seek refuge elsewhere rather than imprison me for almost two years and then decide to send me back to the same place from where I fled." Eniola Adewale, a fellow Nigerian living in Glasgow said frustration and isolation had driven Adeosun to his suicide bid: "This is a man who was hale and hearty when he arrived in Britain, but latterly was in a very bad state medically and psychologically. The government have destroyed him completely, then isolated him, and now he has disappeared. You would expect it of Zimbabwe, not Britain." (Source: Sunday Herald)

April 14, 2002: HEADLINE: DEAR MR BLUNKETT IT IS MY SECOND BIRTHDAY IN DETENTION. I WANT MY BROTHER TO SPEND HIS WITH HIS FRIENDS. CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME? NIKOLA GARZOVA, ROOM 409, DUNGAVEL BYLINE: Marcello Mega BODY: LAST week, The Sunday Mail told how the Garza family found themselves locked up in a former Scots prison after fleeing abuse from neo-Nazis in their native Slovakia. In the days that followed, other detainees at Dungavel, near Strathaven, Lanarkshire, went on hunger strike in protest at the time taken to deal with their cases. On Friday, the Garza family were told they were being transferred to another detention centre in London. Dusan, 32; wife Agata, 34; and children, Nikola, 13; Adrian, 11; and 21-month -old Vanesa, who is brain damaged, were given no warning. Shortly before the move, Nikola wrote this letter to Home Secretary David Blunkett. Dear Mr Blunkett I know you are a busy and important person, but I write because my family is in a sad and bad situation. My name is Nikola. I am from Slovakia. I am only 13, a little teenager. My birthday was on April 2. I spent it in the detention centre. It's my second birthday in a detention centre. I lived in Gateshead. I liked it there. It was the best place I have ever been. I had lots of friends. They did not forget about me. I knew that because they sent lots of cards. My birthday was sad, so is my family. My mum and dad worry about my little sister, Vanesa. She is 21 months old. She can't sit, can't walk and talk. She can't really see. She missed her hearing test. She has problems, but she is absolutely beautiful. In Gateshead there was a team of doctors and they helped. If doctors can continue my little sister will be like a normal child. My brother Adrian, his birthday is on April 24, he will be 12. I wish for him to spend his birthday in Gateshead with friends. Can you help me with it? Please! In this country my family are happy. Please don't send us back to our country. PLEASE don't forget my family. From Nikola Garzova, Room 409, DungavelTHESE are the heartbreaking words penned by 13-year-old refugee Nikola Garzova in a last desperate bid to be allowed to live a 'normal' life. She wrote to Home Secretary David Blunkett just days before her family were moved from the Dungavel detention centre in Lanarkshire to another detention centre in London. The move came within days after the family's plight was exposed in the Sunday Mail. The Slovakian family were woken at 7am on Friday and told they were being moved to Harmondsworth Centre. Dusan, 32; his wife Agata, 34; and their children, Nikola, Adrian, who will be 12 later this month, and Vanesa, 21 months, who is brain damaged, were given no warning and were not even able to inform their solicitor in London. The family's application for asylum had been rejected, but they had been living in the community at Gateshead, Tyneside, until a few weeks ago while they awaited the outcome of legal moves. Because of Vanesa's acute medical needs - she also has problems with her sight and hearing - their situation had gained media attention on Tyneside. But they were moved to Scotland soon after their plight became known locally. Joan Moon, who befriended the family when they were in Gateshead, said history had repeated itself. She said: "I have no doubt they have been singled out again because they have attracted sympathetic press coverage. "It is absolutely shameful. I spoke to the family as they prepared to leave their room at Dungavel. They had been told they would be in London that night and back in Slovakia the next day. "The children were absolutely terrified and I could hear Vanesa crying. "Agata was crying too and could hardly speak. But I did hear her say, 'Why are we not human beings like everybody else?' "It is absolutely heartbreaking." The family fled Slovakia just over a year ago because they suffered racial persecution. Agata had been badly beaten by racist skinheads in Kosice, where the family lived, because her husband is from the hated Roma minority, traditionally travelling people. Agata still has internal problems as a result of the assault. Vanesa's brain injury is believed to have occurred either as a result of the attack or due to lack of oxygen during the turbulent birth that resulted. A Home Office spokeswoman said Nikola's letter had not yet been received but that the Home Secretary would be made aware of it when it arrived. She denied the family's move from Dungavel was linked to media interest. Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, a charity that campaigns for the rights of refugees, said: "This family has done no harm to anyone. Yet, they were wakened at 7am and told to get ready to move. "Their lawyer wasn't told about the move, so no one was there to stand in their defence. What kind of justice, what kind of democracy is that?" She and Joan Moon have pledged to launch a nationwide campaign to demand the family be allowed to remain in the UK. Dotun Adeosun, the Nigerian who tried to commit suicide at Dungavel last month, was also moved on Friday. His lawyers have not been told where he has gone. Mr Adeosun had been kept in solitude since his suicide attempt and was the first detainee to go on hunger strike. More than 40 others joined him last week, but by the weekend most had given up. It is understood Mr Adeosun, an economics graduate, was still refusing solids. Jim Henry, of the Friends of Refugees group in Ayrshire, said the atmosphere had changed at Dungavel on Friday. He and a group of friends had been forced to leave their wallets and car keys at the reception. They were also prevented from giving toys and clothes to children of the asylum seekers they were visiting. He said: "We were told the toys might not conform to British standards. We offered to go through them for the kitemark but were told not to bother. "Someone doesn't like the fact that the appalling situation of these people is attracting media interest."

March 20, 2002: Church justice and peace groups in Scotland complained this week that they have been refused visits to an asylum seeker detention centre. They say that for months, Home Office ministers have ignored letters from the Friends of Refugees in Ayrshire group, which is demanding the right to visit to asylum seekers at the Dungavel centre in South Lanarkshire. More than 180 men, women and children are being kept in the former jail. The group wants to offer a befriending service to vulnerable asylum seekers there, examine conditions and ensure they are being treated with respect. Applications to visit refugees by the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission and the Christian Iona Community have been refused. Jim Henry, of the Friends of Refugees in Ayrshire, said:"I really think that it is a deliberate strategy to isolate these asylum seekers so that they feel even more excluded from society." The group, which has campaigned outside Dungavel since the centre opened to house asylum seekers in September, has received letters of support from Maurice Taylor, the Bishop of Galloway, and the Bishop of Motherwell, Joseph Devine. Henry's concerns have been heightened by the riots in the past few days by asylum seekers facing deportation in the Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre, near Bedford. About 23 asylum seekers absconded and caused £38m in damage after fires were lit during the breakout. Henry said: "Immigration policy, because it is centred around the imprisonment or detention of refugees, heightens the risk of tragedies such as Yarl's Wood happening again. Having come here for safety and finding only a detention centre must cause a lot of resentment in people. Government policy requires a rethink to make it much more humane." Source

March 17, 2002: A NIGERIAN asylum-seeker who attempted suicide at Dungavel Detention Centre last month has been returned to the former prison's medical centre to await deportation. Details of the incident emerged last night and human rights groups say they are now "extremely concerned" about the well-being of Dotun Adeosun, a 31-year-old Nigerian man who drove a seven-inch iron rod into his stomach after learning on February 24 that he was to be deported. He subsequently spent three days on a surgical ward at Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride, where he was operated on before being taken back to Dungavel, Scotland's only asylum detention centre. Robina Qureshi, of Positive Action in Housing, a charity supporting refugees, said Adeosun's fellow detainees had been unable to check on his welfare. "We understand that he is not allowed visitors or to communicate with fellow refugees in person or in writing," she said. Friends within Dungavel who have attempted to visit Adeosun since he returned from hospital have not been allowed contact with him, according to campaigners who spoke with them last week. Qureshi said it was a breach of human rights to deny him visitors. She said: "This highlights the human rights abuse that can take place when refugees are cut off from the rest of society behind barbed wire in 'former' prisons." Campaigners learned of the incident after being allowed to meet with refugees, but claim this was only granted after considerable barriers had been put in their way. Visits are allowed only to named individual refugees and all visitors are fingerprinted. This afternoon, representatives of churches, human rights groups and local residents are to demonstrate outside the detention centre in South Lanarkshire, protesting against the use of detention, particularly for families and children. A spokeswoman for the Home Office said there had been an incident at Dungavel on February 24, but denied that Adeosun was being held incommunicado. The spokeswoman said the incident was regrettable, but that people could become "quite desperate" when asylum claims had been turned down. Jim Henry, spokesman for the group Friends of Refugees in Ayrshire, said he was concerned at the difficulty people had had in visiting refugees.

February 27, 2002: AN MSP has voiced fears about the lack of a sprinkler system at a Scots asylum seekers' detention centre. The safety fears over the unit at the former Dungavel prison near Strathaven in Lanarkshire come in the wake of the massive blaze at the Yarl's Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire. The fire caused (pounds) 43million worth of damage and saw 25 asylum seekers go on the run. Fire brigade chiefs had recommended a sprinkler system be installed at the English centre last year. But despite the blaze, the Home Office said there are still no immediate plans to install the safety device at Dungavel or any other detention centres.  A Home Office spokesman said it would await the outcome of an investigation into the English blaze and confirmed there were no immediate plans to take action at the Scottish site. He said: "We have a review going on into Yarl's Wood and if there are lessons to be learned we will. We don't want to pre-empt that review." The Fire Brigades Union has called for the release of detainees from Yarl's Wood and other detention centres because of the absence of a sprinkler system. (Source: Evening Times)

September 4, 2001: ASYLUM-SEEKERS were taken into Scotland's first dedicated detention centre yesterday amid tight security. They were delivered to Dungavel House immigration detention centre in a people carrier with tinted window. Two hours later, two more asylum-seekers were driven through the 16ft gates topped with razor wire. The centre in South Lanarkshire is run by the company Premier for the Home Office. Roseanna Cunningham, the SNP Shadow Justice Minister, said: "Scotland's Justice Minister should be responsible for the way in which asylum-seekers are treated in Scotland." The Home Office said the unit can hold up to 150 asylum-seekers and includes a family wing. Men and women can mix during the day and evening but have separate sleeping quarters. The first residents were some of the 51 refugees held in Scottish prisons under the immigration laws. Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees staged a protest outside the centre on Sunday but were not present yesterday. (Source: The Times (London)).