DUNGAVEL : THE TRUTH
why I believe we are doing the best we can for asylum seekers and their children

By George Foulkes Labour MP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley

The Scottish Daily Mail 16 September 2003

Out on the streets, actors voice their protests by lying prostrate on the ground. A bishop berates the First Minister for his silence. Protesters bang drums outside Dungavel Detention Centre.

You could be forgiven for thinking a heinous crime is being committed after reading some papers and watching the BBC over the past few weeks. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Early last year, I remember similar concerns being expressed when I was Minister of State for Scotland. And, on the basis of the information I received, I was concerned.

But, having had a long career in politics, I thought I ought to see for myself before joining the mounting protestations. So I went to visit Dungavel.

I witnessed a reality completely at odds with the stories I had heard of harsh and uncaring conditions.

Not only were the residents of Dungavel well fed and cared for but I was impressed with the excellent health and education provision for the children.

It was also obvious that staff, who worked extremely hard to provide the best environment possible, had been deeply wounded by the criticism and the implication that they were harsh and uncaring.

CHILDREN
As well as staff, Dungavel was supervised by a visiting committee of local people with responsibility for ensuring the proper running of the centre.

Yet, incredibly, none of those protesting had even bothered to contact them.

What was also clear was how some inmates were cleverly trying to abuse the system to enter Britain illegally - and not averse to using their children, if necessary, to bypass the system.

Because other MPs and the media had expressed similar concerns to me, I arranged for MPs to visit Dungavel and see how the myths that had been perpetrated lived up to scrutiny. The Home Office also arranged an Open Day for the media and asked me to host it.

I believe all the MPs and journalists who went into Dungavel came away with the same knowledge as me - that life there was far removed from the picture painted in some parts of the media. Yet this previous experience has been totally ignored in the latest protests.

Let's examine why this might be. First, the Trots, the Scottish Socialist Party, see this as a political opportunity to bash Jack McConnell, even though asylum and immigration are the reserved business of Westminster. John Swinney and his Nationalist lot, not to be outdone by the Trots, who are out-flanking him on issue after issue, jumped on the bandwagon.

But both the Trots and the Nats are cynically using the children of these failed asylum seekers as party political pawns. They want a separate asylum and immigration policy in Scotland as part of their agenda to break up Britain.

However, one of the leading Nationalist thinkers, Jim Sillars, has denounced Swinney and his supporters for moral posturing. He rightly chided them for raising false hopes by pretending Holyrood could take effective action on the Dungavel affair.

The shallowness of the SNP protest was exposed at the weekend. In spite of its recent protestations, it is interesting to note there are no resolutions about Dungavel tabled for its annual conference this month.

Thus, Swinney is dramatically revealed as a Johnny-come-lately on the issue of Dungavel.

Meanwhile at Westminster, where power and responsibility for Dungavel and asylum and immigration really lie, Scottish MPs have not been inactive.

SYMPATHY
After the visits, concern was raised about the care and education of children confined in Dungavel for a long time, and this has been taken up with Home Secretary David Blunkett.

So, what is the answer?

It has been suggested the children should go to local schools, but this would separate them from their parents. One can imagine the resulting outcry if that were to happen.

In all of this, there are no simple solutions. Because some in the media have joined the campaign to close Dungavel, they have effectively abdicated their responsibility for asking the critics for their alternative, and from looking critically at the implications.

When Under Secretary of State for Scotland Anne McGuire asked Bishop of Paisley John Mone what option he would suggest, she was told it was up to the politicians. An extraordinary answer.

No one can wash their hands of the problem. We need to look at it with sympathy - but also with realism.

If the Nats and the Trots had their way, and Scotland had a different immigration policy from the rest of the UK, we would need border posts from Gretna to Berwick.

The implication of what they apparently condone is clear - a move toward an open-door policy, allowing into Scotland anyone who wants to come here.

HYSTERIA
That is madness. It would cause huge strains on schools, hospitals, housing and our services. And the people who fear this most are those immigrants who are here legally and Scots of Asian and other ethnic origin, who believe a backlash would result if unfettered immigration were allowed.

We are working towards a balanced policy of asylum and immigration, but this is being undermined by the Dungavel protestors.

Genuine asylum seekers, fleeing persecution, should be dealt with quickly and sympathetically. Many such cases are delayed because the system is clogged up with bogus asylum seekers.

Of course, we should have a planned policy to welcome in people with the skills and talents needed to help build the Scottish and UK economies. But this needs to be carried out in an ordered way so it does not strain our infrastructure.

Unfortunately, the hysteria surrounding the Dungavel protests is hampering such a sensible debate on asylum and immigration.

If they do succeed in closing Dungavel, it would leave no alternative but to return to the situation before the centre was built. Then, illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers were locked up in Greenock Jail with criminals. Is this truly what the protesters fighting to close Dungavel wish to see?

The time is overdue for a sensible debate on this subject but I fear the Nats and the Trots have put their party political prejudices ahead of that.

They need to come down out of the moral trees and off their rose-tinted soapboxes and enter the real political world of difficult choices where there are no simple fixes.