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Friday, August 15, 2003
Dungavel Report
Ministers stay silent on Dungavel reportsHOLYROOD ministers continued yesterday to avoid answering questions about young people detained in a controversial immigration holding facility in Lanarkshire.
Following the release of two damning reports by prisons and education inspectors into Dungavel immigration removal centre, The Herald again asked the first minister, his cabinet and the Scottish secretary, for their views on the issue...
Rosie Kane, Scottish Socialist MSP, said: "Now we can see why the Ay family was deported to Germany without any kind of documentation and without the German authorities being informed, the Home Office knew that under no circumstances could the Ay children still be held in Dungavel when this report was released.
"The Ay family paid the price for the catalogue of human rights abuses that are documented in this report, they had to be disappeared or the position of the Home Office and the very existence of Dungavel would become untenable." The HeraldDetention of refugee children 'must end' Ms Blears said the government would consider the report carefully.
But the Scottish Socialist MSP Rosie Kane said the government must act immediately.
"The call has to be for all children in there and their families to be released," she said. "Let's hope from this we can start treating people humanely throughout the country." The GuardianAsylum centres 'not for children' BBC
People's Festival Debate
Fringe chief rejects elitism charge"You have to find ways to persuade whole communities that they are welcome here in the centre," said the promoter Richard Demarco.
"The Festival cannot go on ignoring the fact that a vast number of Edinburgh’s citizenry live so far from the centre, that emotionally, intellectually and geographically they may as well be in Glasgow."
Mr Demarco was supported by the actor Tam Dean Burn and the writer Kevin Williamson. "The Fringe is highly successful festival, it isn’t going to go away, but it needs to open up," said Dean Burn.
"This isn’t an argument about elitism, but about access."
Williamson said that many people from Edinburgh’s housing estates felt uneasy about attending unfamiliar venues such as the Traverse Theatre or the Usher Hall, and more should be done to make the most of community venues.
They were speaking at a People’s Festival debate, organised by the Scottish Socialist MSP, Colin Fox. The People’s Festival has been established to take arts events to housing schemes far from the big city-centre venues. The ScotsmanEdinburgh People's Festival
Monday, August 11, 2003
Welsh Socialists Conference
