CAMPAIGNERS from across Scotland will gather outside Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre tomorrow as they call for its immediate closure.
The facility has been the focus of criticism since it opened near Strathaven in South Lanarkshire in 2001.
Tomorrow asylum seekers are expected to be amongst the crowds demanding its closure and an end to detention across the UK.
The centre, which holds about 250 detainees, was the focus of hunger strikes in March, when 70 people protesting against their indefinite detention refused to eat.
Now the We Will Rise group, which is behind tomorrow’s protest, says all UK detention centres should be closed.
Spokesperson Yasmine Clara said: “Detention of asylum seekers who have committed no crime has no place in the UK. There is no way to operate a humane or safe detention system.”
Earlier this year the all-party parliamentary group on refugees reported that Home Office officials were failing to follow guidance that detention should be used sparingly and that detention was carried out at substantial cost to taxpayers.
It also expressed concern at “unreasonably long” periods of detention faced by some of those affected, with one Iranian citizen held for two-and-a-half years.
Protestors will meet at George Square in Glasgow at 11am tomorrow to travel to Dungavel by coach, with free transit given to asylum seekers and those who cannot afford a ticket.
Former Dungavel detainee Michael Tsonga, who will be among those attending, said: “It felt like prison. I did not know when I would be released. The bedrooms were overcrowded and I couldn’t see my family. I had done nothing wrong.”
Meanwhile, James Webber from Glasgow, who is also attending the protest said: “Detention centres are a relatively new phenomenon. They are not necessary and they are not inevitable.
“It is no way to treat people who have fled torture and persecution. We need justice and freedom, an end to racism and the scapegoating of immigrants.”
Unworkable: Helpline is slammed for leaving refugees destitute
The National View, October 24: Even if Home Office fails refugees, we must not
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