Move violated child�s rights, say relatives

THE relatives of a Turkish family taken in the first dawn raids since the Holyrood elections have accused the Home Office of treating them like "criminals or drug dealers" and violating their child's rights.

The removal was one of two last week, raising fears among asylum campaigners that the controversial practice will be stepped up in an attempt to meet government targets of dealing with Scotland's outstanding "legacy" cases within five years.

Turkish businessman Ozturk Kasmaz, who ran a food distribution business; his wife, Eleanor; and their two-year-old daughter, Ayse, were taken from their home in Eastriggs, Dumfriesshire, on Monday. Despite his local Conservative MP, David Mundell, making a late appeal to the home secretary, John Reid, to reconsider the decision, the family were flown to Istanbul on Friday.

In Glasgow, 15 asylum seekers and their friends began early-morning candlelit vigils at the Red Road flats, home to thousands of asylum seekers, after Mohammed Arshad, who fled Pakistan six years ago; his wife Kishwer; and children Ali, 19; Fatima, 18; and Rashid, 16, were taken on the same day. They are due to be deported tomorrow.

Glasgow-based charity Unity, which helps asylum families, believes the tactic will prevent dawn raids after the success of similar protests at the Kingsway Court flats in Scotstoun last year.

Both families were temporarily taken to Dungavel House in Lanarkshire, which the Border and Immigration Agency revealed to the Sunday Herald will be increasingly used for families, despite criticism from the Scottish Refugee Council (SRC) that it is damaging to keep children in such centres.

After the outrage provoked by such raids last year and the previous Executive's failed attempts to create a separate "protocol" for Scottish cases, the frequency of such removals died down. Instead, families tended to be removed from the Glasgow immigration centre at their weekly "signing on" appointments.

Kasmaz, 38, fled Turkey in 1997 after fearing for his safety because he was a member of the banned militant Dev Sol front, which was behind a series of terrorist attacks against the Turkish establishment. However, his family claimed he had no involvement in the violence.

The high court in London refused his appeal on human rights grounds and he planned to return to Turkey to reapply for entry to Britain. His brother, Omer, 45, of Annan, said: "His daughter Ayse was crying down the phone from Dungavel and was crying for her mummy and daddy when two female immigration officers took her from her bed.

"It was like an abduction. I have no complaints about the staff at Dungavel, who checked if they were alright, but it is no place to keep a child, even for only four days."

Omer's wife, Maureen, 44, said: "Dawn raids were supposed to have stopped and he has been treated like a criminal or drug dealer. He is a hard-working man who has never claimed off the state.

"It's time the Home Office got its act together and removed people who are taking out of this country. He employed seven people in an area where there is a lot of unemployment. He has nothing in Turkey, no family, home, money and no job."

Meanwhile, Unity hopes to set up a meeting with the health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, whose Govan constituency includes the Border and Immigration Agency's regional headquarters, to urge the Executive to take up the issue of dawn raids with the Home Office.

Around 2500 applications from people who have been in the country for five years or more, but pre-date the New Asylum Model (NAM) introduced this year to speed up processing of cases, must be dealt with over the next five years under the agency's targets.

Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, said: "Hopefully Alex Salmond will take up the case of legacy families with Westminster."

Sally Daghlian, chief executive of the SRC said that Dungavel was "no place for a child". She added: "Removal under any circumstances is traumatic and has a serious impact on the physical and mental health of those involved and the wider community."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said it remained opposed to dawn raids and added that asylum seekers must be treated "fairly and humanely", particularly children.

She added: "Ministers are currently examining what the Scottish government can do to ensure the welfare and needs of children are paramount."

The Borders and Immigration Agency of Scotland and Northern Ireland said there had been no change to its strategy in dealing with failed asylum cases and no increase in dawn raids is planned.

A spokesman said: "We detain people at their homes when we think that is the best place to enforce the immigration laws against those who decide to defy court decisions and remain in the country illegally."

He said it was in a child's best interests to remain with their family, rather than be handed into the care of social workers before deportation days later, and added: "We are considering greater use of Dungavel rather than moving detained families to other removal centres in England."

The SRC-sponsored Refugee Week, a series of cultural and educational projects to raise awareness of refugee issues, starts tomorrow. Details from www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk