The decision of the Home Office to refuse to allow a group of key agencies, including the Church of Scotland, to visit Dungavel Detention Centre is a disgrace.
Over recent weeks, many of us have been troubled at reports that asylum seekers in the Centre are refusing food to bring attention to their plight. We simply want to know if this is true, and to see the conditions in Dungavel for ourselves, as we have been allowed to do on previous visits. The fact access is being denied makes us concerned about the plight of some of the most vulnerable people living in Scotland today.
In Matthew's Gospel Jesus tells the story of the Last Judgement. In it, he suggests that we will be judged as individuals based on how we treat the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the sick and the imprisoned. Indeed, he goes further. He suggests that when we mistreat the vulnerable, we mistreat God.
As a nation we stand similarly judged. Our decency as a society is predicated on how we treat the imprisoned and the stranger. The asylum seekers being held in Dungavel are both.
The needless loss of some 800 lives in the Mediterranean Ocean over the last week has touched a raw nerve. It is hard to understand a world where their deaths could in any way be described as a deterrent. As individuals, and as a society, we need to adopt a different attitude towards those seeking asylum in our country. They are our sisters and brothers, made of the same flesh and blood.
The Church of Scotland does not quibble with the fact that there may be times when it is appropriate for those who have entered our country illegally to be returned to the country that they have originally come from. But if we do so, we need to make sure that they will be safe and we need to take full account of the huge dangers that they have put themselves in in order to get here in the first place. And for as long as they are in this country we need to demand our government treats them with dignity and respect.
What goes on in Dungavel Detention Centre happens in our name. The locking up of people for weeks, months and, potentially, even years is happening in our name. Surely we have a right to know what is happening and to challenge injustice if we find it.
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