Courtesy of Daily Mail
An immigrant family of three facing deportation died after jumping from the 15th floor of a high-rise flat. The horrific incident happened at a notorious tower block complex in a run-down district of Glasgow.
The bodies of the victims - understood to be a man, his wife and their son - were found lying at the foot of the block. They tied themselves together before making the 150ft suicide leap from the YMCA-managed property.
Although the victims' identities have not been released, locals said they may have been Kosovans or Russians who faced being deported. An immigrant family of three facing deportation died after jumping from the 15th floor of a high-rise flat.
The horrific incident happened at a notorious tower block complex in a run-down district of Glasgow. The bodies of the victims - understood to be a man, his wife and their son - were found lying at the foot of the block.
They tied themselves together before making the 150ft suicide leap from the YMCA-managed property. Although the victims' identities have not been released, locals said they may have been Kosovans or Russians who faced being deported.
Robina Qureshi, director of the charity, said: 'We know that they were asylum seekers. We know that their asylum application had been refused and were facing imminent destitution under the asylum rules. The son was in his 20s and the mother was in her 40s. We believe that there should be a public inquiry into these deaths, and particularly to do with the impact that the UK Borders Agency has on the lives of asylum seekers who have lived here for years but live in the fear of removal. We want to know what role the UK Borders Agency (UKBA) played. We ask that the UKBA issue an immediate statement about the suicides.'
Our Government clearly know how to push men and women and their children to the brink...and beyond. Pray for them. Here is the website of Voices in Exile, ran from the basement of St Mary Magdalen's Church. They do a lot of good work campaigning on behalf of those who are destitute and wish to stay in this country, rather than be returned to a place they deem worth than death itself.
5 comments:
Just out of curiosity: just how many of these asylum seekers that your charity comes into contact with, are fleeing from actual persecution rather than economic migration (free health care, benefits, etc)?
I don't know. Contact the oranisation itself and ask.
Hestor,
The Home Office provide copious statistics and reports. The last full year report on Asylum Applcations is for 2007.
Here are bullet points from that report:
"16 per cent of the 21,775 initial decisions in 2007 were granted asylum, an increase from
10 per cent in 2006 and the proportion granted Humanitarian Protection (HP) or
Discretionary Leave (DL)2 decreased to 10 per cent in 2007.
14,935 appeals were determined by Immigration Judges3 in 2007, with 72 per cent of
appeals dismissed in 2007 and 23 per cent allowed (22 per cent in 2006).
The total asylum work in progress in the AIT at the end of 2007 was 4,000.
Overall, 6,540 (28 per cent) of the applications in 2007 resulted in grants of asylum (14
per cent), Humanitarian Protection / Discretionary Leave (8 per cent), or in allowed
appeals (5 per cent)."
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs08/hosb1108.pdf
I might add the job of organisations like Voices in Exile is not to determine Asylum applications but to support foreigners who are in need and forbidden by law from obtaining work or supporting themselves.
Bryan
There's more on this case in the Guardian:
" Three people who fell to their deaths from a Glasgow tower block on Sunday are believed to have been Russian nationals who had been trying to claim asylum in the UK from Canada.
A source close to the case said the three were a father, aged 43 and named Serykh, believed to be a former member of the Russian security services, a mother, and a son in his early 20s. The source said it was a highly unusual case.
The family are said to have been trying to claim asylum in the UK from Canada, which had reportedly given them leave to stay but had denied them citizenship. They are said to have first arrived in the UK in November 2007 and came to Glasgow in autumn last year."
Glasgow fall victims 'were seeking asylum from Canada'
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 20.17 GMT on Monday 8 March 2010.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/08/glasgow-fall-asylum-canada-russian
http://www.ncadc.org.uk/current-newszine.html
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