Hundreds of people today gathered in Glasgow at a candlelight vigil to show solidarity for the plight of Syria’s refugees.
Cities across the UK took part in similar events today in support of the refugees.
Despite gloomy skies and rain, the city’s George Square was filled with supporters carrying banners bearing the message “I welcome refugees” and candles lit in memory of refugees who have died.
The Glasgow Sees Syria event triggered similar vigils around the word after the idea for the vigil spread on social media. Organiser Alexis Stearns said it showed people were “desperate to make a stand”.
The crowd was addressed by Humza Yousaf, Scotland's Minister for Europe and International Development, who said the picture of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian refugee whose body was found on a Turkish beach, had “seared into the collective consciousness of the whole world”.
“I think history will look back at this moment, at all the hundreds of people here and they will see we stood on George Square on this day to say refugees are welcome here,” he said.
Amal Azzudin, one of the Glasgow Girls campaigners who brought the issue of poor treatment of asylum seekers into the spotlight ten years ago, urged politicians globally to take action on the refugee crisis.
Share article Glasgow City Chambers had displayed a banner with the message “refugees are welcome”. Newly-elected council leader Frank McAveety told the crowd: “Scotland is a diverse nation and Glasgow stands ready to respond in the best way possible.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel