Well-wishers turned out in their hundreds for a candle-lit vigil for asylum seeker Mercy Baguma yesterday in Govan and called for a change in the system to ensure this never happens again.

Mohamed Tejani, an asylum seeker himself from Sierra Leone, who had known Mercy before her untimely death last month, believes that there is a risk of more similar cases.

He said: “There are a lot of, lot of people going through the same things.

“Even my flatmate who has been here for five years ... his application was revoked and he is going crazy.

“This will keep on happening unless something is done.

“And we are going to have a lot more things happening like Mercy.

“Mercy did not have to die. She did not deserve to die like this.

“The system has to change. There are people coming to this country to be free of persecution but this is happening.

“They will have to go back to the beginning and change the system.”

Human rights campaigner Robina Qureshi believes that Mercy, her fiance Eric and their son Adriel have been badly let down by the system.

She said: “Why was the alarm not raised? What is the impact here? Why did they not give an address?

“The impact is that that man over there [Eric] did not know that the silence behind the door was Mercy dead and the child caught starving.

“He thought she’d moved and that the silence was that.”

There was an outpouring of grief for the Ugandan, whose body was found last month in a flat while her son cried in his cot.

Her best friend Siphekazi told the well-wishers: “I have lost a friend, a sister.

“We have been friends for six years and if you saw me, you saw Mercy behind me.”

And looking towards Eric, with his son darting between his legs and friends trying to catch him, she went on.

“I don’t know how I’m going to continue, how we’re going to continue, but we’re a team and have been from the beginning and we will continue to be a team.

“I’d like to thank the people of Glasgow for supporting us.

“There are no other words. The support we have got, we are truly grateful for.

“Mercy has left us. I don’t know what to do.

“Goodbye my friend. Heaven has a new angel. I will see you in the next life. I love you so much.”

Veronica Bonad recalled the woman who would come to her Afro- Caribbean shop.

She said: “I will always remember her sense of joy and good humour and how she was always laughing and telling jokes.

“She would always have her son with her. He is always such a happy child, always smiling.”

Adama Bayraytay would do her hair, and there was a nod to that in the purple balloons that were released.

Pictures of her on the stage showed her hair braided with purple dye.

Adama said: “She would come to my house and I would do her hair and we just clicked.

“It was as if we had known each other for years.

“And when I would see her in the street with her son, she would always have him close into her chest.

“I would ask her why she did this and she would say that it would give her more space for her shopping.”

There was also sorrow for the way she died.

Grace Manyika echoed the sentiments of many when she said: “We let you down Mercy, we all let you down and the system let you down and that has to change.”

As the light faded and the rain drizzled down on those gathered, thoughts turned to the young Ugandan mother who had done so much to lighten up the lives of those around her.

Laura Benedetti spoke of ‘a good friend, a great person whom she had met through church and whom she had kept in contact with.

‘I’m going to miss her so much.’ And she had a message for the authorities.

‘This should not be happening in Scotland.’ And she assured Eric that she and the greater community would be there for him.

‘He ahould be allowed to stay. This is just so unfair.’