Scottish clergy lead call for Ay Family to be given Asylum

This article from the Glasgow Herald

      "We are being put through mental torture by being in here. Why won't the government listen to us? The younger children cannot cope any longer and need to get out. It is a very bad place for them to live surrounded by barbed fences and not getting out to play. They are already suffering from stress and depression. Being here is driving us all crazy. I know people who have got crazy here after a week." Beriwan Ay

Beriwan 14, Newroz 3, Dilovan 12 and Medya 8 are spending their 353rd day in detention.

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Please allow this family to stay

      Over the past few months the plight of children being held in detention at the Immigration Removal Centre at Dungavel near Strathaven in Lanarkshire has been highlighted in the media. In particular, the four children of the Ay family, Kurdish refugees from Turkey, have been brought to the public's attention because of the length of time they have been detained: almost a year.

      We wish to make an appeal that this family should be allowed to stay in the United Kingdom. We have no wish to enter into the legal arguments of the Ay family's application for asylum. Our concern is one of human rights and reparation for what we feel has been a grave injustice committed against them, particularly the four children.

      The reasons given by the Home Office for their continued detention is that they are described as "serial absconders". The family came to this country after leaving Germany where their application for asylum had been rejected. While this may be the case, it is inhuman to detain children from the ages of seven to 14 for 11 months behind barbed-wire fences with no opportunity of leaving what is a prison regime.
Despite medical reports that the children have suffered greatly and are experiencing severe emotional and mental health problems, no recognition has been acknowledged by the Home Office of the damage which their long-term detention has had on these children.

      It has been argued by some that the Ay family could have shortened their time in detention by abandoning their appeal. This would seem to suggest that justice is available only for those who are prepared to undergo a difficult and lengthy waiting period. It is of the very essence of justice that it be dispensed speedily.

      The Ay family are essentially victims of a system which appears to be overwhelmed. While the government has our sympathy in the difficult task of processing such an enormous quantity of asylum applications, the treatment given to the Ay family is inexcusable and demands some form of just compensation.

      We appeal therefore to the Home Secretary to grant residency in the United Kingdom to the Ay family as reparation for the length of time they have had to spend in detention and for the effect this has had upon the Ay children.

       Rev John Cairns, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; Rt Rev Joseph Devine, Bishop of Motherwell, Roman Catholic Church; Rt Rev Idris Jones, Bishop of Glasgow, Episcopal Church; Rt Rev John Mone, Bishop of Paisley, chairman, Catholic Justice and Peace Commission; M Ashraf Anjun, president, Islamic Centre, Glasgow; Dr Frank Murphy, former psychological services manager, South Lanarkshire Council; Bill Speirs, general secretary, STUC.

Glasgow Herald, Friday 4th July 2003