Ministers renege on Dungavel child pledge

 

Photo: The Unity Centre, Glasgow

 

19 youngsters admitted to detention centre this year

Last Tuesday, Sulaiti Wahuyo and her two-year-old son Gabriel were fingerprinted, photographed, issued with a number and an identification card, which must be carried at all times – and then imprisoned.

While not convicted of any crime, as failed asylum-seekers, she and her child were incarcerated in Scotland’s notorious Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre. Their plight is an indictment of the UK government which promised the people of Scotland last year that no more children and their families would be held like prisoners behind barbed wire.

Wahuyo and her son are just one of many mothers and children to be held in Dungavel so far this year, the Sunday Herald has learned.

Wahuyo is no stranger to detention. Suspected of supporting a rebel group in her native Uganda, she was arrested by soldiers, and held incommunicado for two years from October 2006 without trial. She eventually escaped to the UK with her infant son.

During her incarceration Wahuyo was repeatedly raped and tortured. She did not see her son Gabriel until her escape in October 2008.

On Thursday, Wahuyo and her child were taken from Dungavel to Yarl’s Wood, in Bedfordshire, another holding centre, where she awaits her forcible removal to Uganda this Wednesday.

The Unity Centre in Glasgow, which supports refugee families, said: “Sulaiti is a law-abiding woman who is absolutely terrified of being sent back to Uganda. As a victim of torture and detention, it is unjust of the UK Border Agency to return Sulaiti.”

 

The Unity campaigners say this mother and child’s incarceration flies in the face of the UK government’s pledge to provide an alternative to the detention of families.

On October 23, 2008, Secretary of State for Scotland Jim Murphy announced the introduction of a pilot scheme which would see up to four families at a time housed in former council flats in Glasgow, allowing them access to basic facilities for two weeks before being repatriated.

Murphy, a father of two, said: “One of the first things I did was to see whether we could bring this process forward. I would hope for it to be launched at the start of the new year.”

Six months on, nothing has changed. The Unity Centre has recorded at least 19 children being detained with their families in Dungavel since the beginning of 2009.

According to the Centre, since January 1 at least two single parent families with four children have been detained.

Alice Lithgow, a volunteer at the Unity Centre, said: “Detention is supposed to be the last resort for children and only used for families considered to be a high risk of absconding. Of all groups of detainees, single mums with young children are the group least likely to abscond.”

The Children’s Commissioner for Scotland has threatened to report the UK and the Scottish government to the UN, as the continued confinement of asylum-seeking children under the age of 16 contravenes the Convention of the Rights of the Child.

While the Scottish government has no authority to intervene in Dungavel, as asylum matters are reserved to Westminster, the Scottish Government and local councils are responsible for ensuring child welfare.

A spokesperson for the UK Border Agency could not confirm any time frame for implementing the new policy, stating that details were yet to finalised.

A spokesperson for Glasgow City Council echoed that uncertainty: “It is hoped the project will become operational in the near future.”

Concerns have been raised about the negative impact of imprisonment on children.

Following a surprise inspection at Dungavel in 2008, Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said: “The plight of detained children remains of great concern. An immigration removal centre can never be a suitable place for children.

Any period of detention can be detrimental to children and their families.”

Published in the Sunday Herald Sunday April 19th, 2009 (Five star rated)

“The time is right to remove nuclear weapons from Scotland”

Photo: Gareth Harper

 

Scotland could invoke international law to block the UK government’s desire to maintain a nuclear arsenal, one of the world’s leading legal experts has stated.

In the run-up to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s 51st anniversary on February 17th, Judge Christopher Weeramantry, former vice-president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), told an Edinburgh conference that while defence matters are reserved to the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament has international humanitarian and legal obligations that weapons of mass destruction violate.

Weeramantry said: “Gross violations of international obligations aren’t excluded from the purview of the Scottish Parliament. The absence of power in the former area cannot cancel out its responsibilities in the latter.”

Worries that “sledgehammer” legislation will prevent photography

Photo: Bill Joseph

Pressure groups and industry bodies hit out at “sledgehammer” legislation and the potential for police to wield those laws to prevent photography, curtail civil liberties and dampen dissent in the wake of Ian Tomlinson’s death during the G20 protests in London.

Crucial footage has emerged showing a police officer striking Tomlinson with a full-force baton blow. Tomlinson later collapsed and died from a suspected heart attack.

Campaigners hope this incident will highlight the dangers of police suppression of photography in public places under terrorism laws.

Dumpster-diving: Bin there, done that?

Photo: Wikicommons

Veritas gets down in the dumpster in the hunt for free food

With the country now ‘officially’ in recession, after the worst slump in gross domestic product (GDP) since 1980, unemployment is on the rise in all industries with predictions of two million jobless in 2009. Though quarterly student loans means that Scottish students are less affected, a high proportion of Napier’s international students relying on part-time jobs are less lucky.

But instead of focusing on the recession, and predictions that it’s only going to get worse, Veritas has hit the streets in its first instalment of ‘how to live for free…’ This month we look at food and the practise of ‘dumpster-diving’ – where people go through supermarket chain bins filling their fridges with food waste.

Starting back in the mid-‘90s in New York, the ‘freegan’ movement has gathered momentum in the past year in the UK, with research figures revealing a high proportion of the 6.7 million tonnes sent to landfill annually is  ‘avoidable’. The movement in Edinburgh has also grown in popularity, with numerous online forums organising meet-ups as well as positive media attention.

Napier doesn’t make the grade in nation-wide student experience survey

Napier University bottomed out in a UK-wide ranking of universities, according to a survey of students’ perception of their experience at university.

The survey, the second of its kind and commissioned by The Times Higher Education Supplement, placed Napier University at 93 out of 101 universities in a poll designed to showcase universities offering the top student experience.

Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, said: “While some cynics may be quick to dismiss the results as ‘just another league table’, what makes this survey stand apart is that students themselves determine the factors important in delivering a high-quality experience.”

The time has come: remove nukes from Scotland

Photo: Wikicommons

 

Scotland could invoke international law to block the UK government’s desire to maintain a nuclear arsenal, one of the world’s leading legal experts has stated.

In the run-up to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s 51^st anniversary on February 17^th, Judge Christopher Weeramantry, former vice-president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), told an Edinburgh conference that while defence matters are reserved to the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament has international humanitarian and legal obligations that weapons of mass destruction violate.Weeramantry said: “Gross violations of international obligations aren’t excluded from the purview of the Scottish Parliament. The absence of power in the former area cannot cancel out its responsibilities in the latter.”

Pirate Bay no safe habour for file sharing

 

 

Photo: Pirate Bay

 

 

The word ‘pirate’ is derived from the Greek word peira, which roughly translates to ‘to find luck on the sea’. Language lessons aside, it seems Swedish-hosted file sharing site Pirate Bay is no longer sailing through untroubled waters. In a court case that has bordered on farcical, three of the website’s co-founders, Fredik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi and the site’s donor, Swedish dotcom millionaire Carl Lundström, stood in the dock in Stockholm charged with copyright infringement and staring two years in prison and a fine of £98,000 in the face.

The trial has been the scene of comical moments: when asked if he wished compensation for appearing, part of Swedish court procedure, one of the defense witnesses quipped he would like flowers sent to his wife. This resulted in £3,000 worth of flowers sent via the internet by Pirate Bay supporters.

Controversial comedy – Or political correctness gone mad? Ex-Veritas columnist in discrimination row

 

 

Photo: Will Andrews

 

 

In a case of preaching to the unconverted, Scottish comedian The Reverend Obadian Steppenwolfe III has been accused of “grossly crossing a line of decency and respect” by the Stirling University Students Association (SUSA), who are campaigning to have him banned from 16 student unions

The Reverend, real name Jim Muir, joked about the appearance of a transvestite student sitting in the front row of a recent student union gig in Stirling.

Mark Cullen, Vice President Services and Treasurer of SUSA, said: “There is nothing that the student movement takes more seriously than equality and he was essentially a bully. We all accept that comedy will often be cutting edge and controversial but there is a line of decency and respect that was grossly crossed.”

Grassed up: council defends £40,000 bill to returf Gardens

Photo: Emma McDowell

It’s usually the only place in Edinburgh where you can watch a businessman in a sharp suit gobbling a 99 cone like a sunburnt child at the seaside, ice cream smeared across their face and dripping on their double breasted pockets. 

But the lawns of East Princes Street Gardens won’t be playing host to this and other sights until after Easter as work commences to repair the damage to the grass caused by the city’s winter festival events.

Both sections of the garden will be returfed under orders from Edinburgh City Council, after assessments of the grass declared it failed to recover from the impact made by the winter tourist attractions.

Google StreetView UK a sight for sore eyes

Photo: Demian Hobby

We ‘hoover’ the house when it’s dusty, ‘clingfilm’ our leftovers to sate a late-night hunger, daydream of ‘jetskiing’ Baywatch-esque through turquoise waters, ‘Google’ the answer to a drunken argument over who created cream cheese… When brand names become so ubiquitous they morph into adjectives, it can categorically said they have become part of our collective consciousness.

 

Usually considered a benevolent Big Brother, Google’s introduction of Google Street View to the UK last week has been greeted with flurries of a media storm. The feature, part of Google Maps, provides 360 degree panoramic views of the streets of 25 UK cities.

A myriad of concerns have been voiced, ranging from claims of invasions of privacy to apprehension the service could be used as an aid in planning crimes.