PROTESTERS gathered to voice their fury at the Government’s policy to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda in the hours before the first flight to the country is set to take off.
A small crowd gathered in Glasgow’s George Square on Tuesday evening in protest over the policy, which will be interrogated in court next month to determine its legality.
Among them was Kurdish asylum seeker Brwa Mahmood, who arrived in Britain four months ago.
Protesters are in George Square to protest the Tories' vile Rwanda plan. Scotland is making its views on this government clear! 📢✊ pic.twitter.com/H8upB9VIpE
— The National (@ScotNational) June 14, 2022
The 30-year-old journalist fled danger in Iraq with his wife and two-year-old daughter.
He told The National: “I am here to apply for asylum here. To support people like me, I have come here today.
“I came here to save my life, my wife and my daughter’s life.”
He said he was “not very happy” with the asylum process, which has seen his application delayed because the Home Office deemed his ID photograph – which included his daughter – as unacceptable.
Mohammad Asif, the founder of the Afghan Human Rights Foundation and himself a refugee, told the crowd the UK Government had “destroyed” his home countries and others in the Middle East, adding: “This is our home and we have to stand.”
He noted the disparity in the treatment of asylum seekers from Ukraine versus that of those from the Middle East and Africa.
Britons are being offered a cash incentive to take in those fleeing the war in Eastern Europe and Boris Johnson has pledged Ukrainians will not be sent to Rwanda.
Asif said this disparity was because of racism and said that asylum seekers were “blamed for every ill in this country”.
Asylum seekers will only be sent to Rwanda if they have entered the UK “illegally”, such as crossing the English Channel by boat.
But Asif said there were too few legal routes and urged the government to open safe passages to avoid people making the perilous journey from the French coast.
Alison Phipps, a prominent refugee activist and professor of languages at Glasgow University, told protesters her daughter – an asylum seeker – had been illegally deported and she was only reunited after a difficult campaign against the Home Office.
Phipps said: “This is about the mass transportation by this country to another country. Everyone engaged in this is diminished in their humanity.”
She slammed the UK’s “shabby, grubby trade in human beings”, adding: “Everyone engaged in this is diminished in their humanity.”
Will, 24, a care worker, said: “What is being protested against represents the cowardice of the nation, of the government, specifically.
“It’s a deeply immoral attempt to wash our hands of responsibility for the people who are coming here seeking help.”
The first flight – thought to be carrying six people – will take off on Tuesday evening.
A Privilege Style airline Boeing 767 is thought to be setting off from the Boscombe Down military air base in England.
Johnson spent much of the day prior to the flight attacking lawyers representing asylum seekers, accusing them of attempting to undermine the government.
The Bar Council and Law Society of England and Wales condemned the Prime Minister’s comments, calling them “misleading and dangerous”.
A joint statement from the organisations noted such lawers were “simply doing their jobs” by representing clients entitled to legal counsel.
Those sent to Rwanda will have no recourse to return to the UK and can only settle in the East African country or be sent back to their home countries.
There is the possibility the Govrenment may be forced to walk back the policy if it is defeated on human rights grounds in the courts and in this instance the Home Secretary ha committed to bringing those sent away back to Britain.
