NICOLA Sturgeon has signalled she may snub Donald Trump if he comes to Scotland on his UK visit next month in light of his “appalling” child migrant policy.
The First Minister has previously said she would be willing to meet the US President, despite a series of previous controversies.
However her office said that the situation was now being kept “under review” following the “egregious” policy of separating children from parents at the US-Mexico border.
After weeks of mounting outcry, and repeated false claims that he was constrained by law from acting, Mr Trump halted his own policy through an executive order on Wednesday.
It means migrant parents and children will be detained together after crossing the border.
However it does not address the fate of the 2300 children removed from their parents between May 5 and June 9 and keep in wire holding cages.
Earlier this week, Ms Sturgeon described a smuggled audio recording of infants crying for their parents in a border detention camp as "horrifying".
At First Minister’s Questions, she was asked by SNP MSP Ruth Maguire if it would be appropriate for the UK government to “roll out the red carpet” in the circumstances.
Ms Sturgeon said: “Meetings are one thing - perhaps - but red carpet treatment is another.
“I do not think that there can be any decent person across the UK, across Europe or across the world - including the vast majority of people in America - who has not been appalled by the images and the stories from America of young children being separated from their parents and incarcerated in what look, to all intents and purposes, like cages.
“I am glad that the President appeared to make a U-turn on that position.
“However, I think that we all have to be careful not just to assume that the situation is okay now because it appears that, instead of children being detained without their parents, we will still see children being detained with their parents.
“I will continue to raise my voice against such instances.”
Mr Trump is due in Britain for a relatively low key working visit - rather than the pomp and circumstance of a state visit - on July 13.
Robert Wood Johnson, the US Ambassador to the UK, said this week that Mr Trump would meet the Queen, telling Sky News: “Meeting Her Majesty is the most important thing, because she's the head of state, and from then on, it'll be what the president wants to do.”
The meeting is expected to take place at Windsor Castle.
He will also meet Theresa May, who on Wednesday said the US government’s child separation policy was wrong.
Mr Trump has a preference for visiting his own properties on foreign and has two Scottish golf courses to choose from - Menie in Aberdeenshire and Turnberry in Ayrshire.
Ms Sturgeon’s official spokesman said the First Minister had previously said she would meet Mr Trump but that was being “kept under review in light of the present circumstances”.
He added: “Let’s see how this new policy plays out”.
Ms Sturgeon said the Trump policy appeared to be part of a wider global hostility to migration.
She said: "In Italy, there is the conduct around the Roma community and there are reports today that Hungary has decided to criminalise lawyers and activists who help asylum seekers.
“That should make us all pause for thought. We should be standing up for the rights and values that all of us hold dear as human beings.
"The world has a collective responsibility to deal with those who are seeking refuge and asylum.
“It is important not only that we do that collectively, but that we do that with human dignity at the very forefront of our minds."
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