Kevin McKenna: Humane approach to refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants undermined by the UK Government

We saw the same contempt in February 2014 in the cold eyes of George Osborne when he journeyed to Edinburgh. The Chancellor favoured us with this visit just long enough to tell assorted Unionist business types who had all been threatening to quit the country that an independent Scotland couldn’t have access to its own currency.

This, incidentally, was also the tipping point for many Scottish Labour voters who were sickened by their party backing an Old Etonian Tory telling Scots what they could and could not do with their own money.

Seven months later the UK Government’s disdain for the affairs of Scotland was evident once more on the steps of 10 Downing Street. With the Union saved for the time being David Cameron was able to knife gullible old Gordon Brown between the ribs by immediately announcing his English Votes for English Laws wheeze.

Yet, I am more than just a little relieved that the EU campaign will be a short one, for it will be brutish, nasty and xenophobic. As such, it will be in ugly contrast to the way in which the Scottish independence referendum campaign was conducted despite the false outrage of Alistair Darling and Jim Murphy as they followed the line from their masters in Conservative Central Office.

The independence campaign, on either side of the constitutional debate, was conducted for the most part with vigour and passion and there was a sense among people who had been excluded from the affairs of their country that this was their time to make a difference. Independent or not, the way in which Scottish politics had previously been arranged was now changed for good. The EU campaign will be like a sewer compared to this.

Iain Duncan Smith, the man who wants disabled people to get out of their wheelchairs to walk for their benefits, set the tone last Sunday. It was only going to be a matter of time before one wretched individual on the Leave side attempted to use the Paris gun attacks as a means of persuading people of their argument and Duncan-Smith would have near the top of many people’s list.

“There is another concern and risk: the migration issue, in meltdown around the EU, with the EU almost incapable, it seems, of handling this massive wave of migration coming in from, not just by the way Syria,” he said. “We hear today about Pakistanis and others coming into Hungary and having a problem. You see various people from different parts of Iran are coming in. It’s not just from one country.

“These are big issues further down the road for us. This open border does not allow us to check and control people who may come and spend time. We see what happened in Paris where they spent ages planning and plotting. Who is to say it is not beyond the wit of man that those might be already thinking about that?”

There was fear, loathing, suspicion and barely concealed hostility in this semi-literate diatribe towards people who have suffered appalling human rights abuses and this will characterise the Leave campaign. No wonder David Coburn, Ukip's only elected politician in Scotland, is relishing the weeks ahead. The Remain side’s strategy will not be as unpleasant as the one deployed by their opponents but it will be venal and avaricious and will seek only to pursue continued EU membership on the basis that it will be good for big business.

Since the birth of devolution both Labour and SNP, when they have been in power, have adopted a much more humane and enlightened approach to the issue of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants. Yet this is being undermined by the UK Government’s sinister decision in 2012 to take responsibility for the housing of refugees and asylum-seekers away from Scottish local authorities. Almost overnight the qualities of care, compassion and mercy that characterised our approach to this sensitive area were replaced by the Tories’ only motivating principle: profit.

Reports in The Times earlier this week carried allegations of physical and psychological intimidation being inflicted on asylum-seekers in Glasgow by the company sub-contracted to house asylum-seekers, Orchard and Shipman. The allegations included air freshener being sprayed at asylum seekers while they were laughed at; pinching asylum seekers noses; and a sex-trafficking victim claiming she was left vulnerable by being housed in inappropriate accommodation. There were also reports of a man being housed in a flat with blood-splattered walls with no lock on the front door and a mum who felt threatened after she refused to lift heavy bags because she had recently undergone major surgery.

These allegations and others were so detailed and serious that six Glasgow SNP MPs asked the Home Office on Thursday to make a statement on the matter. There are deep concerns among agencies in Scotland, including the Scottish Refugee Centre and Bridges Programmes, about the way housing for refugees and asylum-seekers is being sourced and run in Glasgow, which takes in the bulk of them, and that it is at odds with the open, transparent and supportive attitude that the Scottish Government applies.

Holyrood’s attitude is underpinned by a basic humanity that tries to ensure that people may have a chance, among other things, to reclaim their dignity, often following torture, terror and forced separation. This approach, which was working well until 2012, took great care not to add to the distress of people who had recently endured deep trauma in their lives.

Glaswegians ought to be outraged at reports of this alleged behaviour. The city has earned a Europe-wide reputation for positive integration. If provision for asylum-seekers was wholly devolved to Scotland there would be no issue about their treatment. For several years now Glasgow has carried an international gold standard of care for refugees and asylum seekers. To see this threatened because the Tories made profit and exploitation the driving force of policy in this area is heartbreaking.