KEVIN SCHOFIELD, DAVID LEASK and CATHERINE MacLEOD The Scottish Government is to demand answers from UK immigration authorities over revelations in The Herald that the children of failed asylum seekers are being held alongside hardened criminals at Dungavel detention centre.
Stewart Maxwell, the Communities Minister, told MSPs yesterday he would write to the Border and Immigration Agency to seek clarification about who exactly is being held at the secure complex in Lanarkshire.
Mr Maxwell made his comments during a Scottish Parliament debate on asylum seekers in Scotland.
He said: "The story in The Herald highlights yet again that the detention of children is wrong.
"It is clear that we need to find out the truth about what is happening in Dungavel and in light of the story we will write to the Border and Immigration Agency in the next few days to seek reassurances on the situation at Dungavel."
Worried staff at Dungavel have told The Herald that up to 85% of the centre's detainees are foreign criminals awaiting deportation from the United Kingdom. The Home Office has declined to confirm what proportion of the centre's population are criminals but has confirmed it houses ex-prisoners at the facility.
MSPs who took part in yesterday's members' debate, which was brought by the Glasgow SNP MSP Sandra White, voiced their anger at the situation. Ms White said: "Scotland is held in high regard throughout the world, however the practice of dawn raids and the detention centre at Dungavel seriously call into question our claims to be warm and welcoming."
Bill Aitken, the Tory MSP for Glasgow, said it was "totally and utterly unacceptable", while Green MSP Patrick Harvie said the parliament should use its child protection powers to deal with the matter.
Christina McKelvie, one of the SNP's list MSPs for Central Scotland, said: "The idea of keeping children in the same premises as prisoners, no matter what the crime, should not be countenanced."
Pauline McNeill, the Labour MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, said: "It is simply not right that the children of asylum seekers should be held there in a place of detention alongside foreign nationals waiting to be deported. It is wrong and I urge the Home Office to act on it."
The Scottish Refugee Council's head of policy, Simon Hodgson, said: "Children should not be held in detention full stop and holding children in proximity to criminals in no way respects their rights.
"We firmly believe that, as is the case in many other countries, it is possible to remove families without the use of force or detention and we urge the UK Government to develop policies which keep children in the asylum system safe from harm and treat them with dignity and respect."
Dungavel was yesterday backed by its local MP, former Labour minister Adam Ingram. He said: "I regularly visit Dungavel and I have every confidence in the way the facility is being run.
"I have been assured that serious criminals are not being placed at the facility and children would be with their parents when other single people would be around in some of the common areas."
The Home Office, as The Herald reported yesterday, has been at pains to stress that children and "cons" are not held in the same part of Dungavel. Sources, however, stressed failed asylum seekers and their families were free to mix with ex-prisoners in common areas.
