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28th September 2006

Health fears for children held after asylum family raid

Concerns were growing last night for the health of two asylum-seeker children seized in a dawn raid.

Oussama Benai, 11, who campaigners report has severe diabetes, and his younger sister Mayssa, who they say is being considered for an operation at Yorkhill Hospital, were removed in the early hours of yesterday morning with their mother Leila, 36. It is believed they have been taken to Dungavel detention centre.

Their father, Azeddine Benai, is understood to have escaped by jumping out the window of their flat at Kingsway in Glasgow.

The family, who sought asylum from Algeria, have lived in Glasgow for the last three years and the deportation by the Home Office echoed controversial dawn raids carried out in the area last year.

Politicians and campaigners hit out at the treatment of the children, following assurances by Jack McConnell, the First Minister, that dawn raids on families will be reconsidered.

The community is "devastated" by the move, said the headteacher of the school where Oussama was a pupil, and he criticised the "traumatic" treatment of the children.

The Home Office last night refused to comment on individual cases but insisted all protocols were followed.

According to the campaign group Positive Action in Housing (PAIH), immigration officials came to the family's home at 6:45am. It is thought Mrs Benai and her two children will be transferred to London to catch a flight tomorrow.

But Mr Benai has said the family face death threats in Algeria.

There was added concern for the children. PAIH said Oussama needs insulin, and they believe he fell ill shortly after raid. Mayssa, 2, was supposed to visit a consultant in Yorkhill hospital on or around the 24 October to decide if she needs a follow-up operation to improve breathing through her nose, the group said.

Donal Currie, headteacher of St Brendan's Primary, where Oussama is a pupil said: "The removal of asylum-seeker children in this way is not only traumatic for them, but is also extremely distressing for the rest of the school community.

"We at St Brendan's have been in this situation several times now and it creates anguish, worry and great sadness for everyone involved with the school."

Robina Qureshi, director of PAIH, said the raid brought back memories of the Vucaj family, originally from Albania, who were also removed in a dawn raid. That case was criticised by Kathleen Marshall, the children's commissioner, and led to Mr McConnell calling for a review of how dawn raids are dealt with.

Ms Qureshi said: "It's communities as well as families who are being terrorised. It's exactly one year since the Vucaj kids were the victims of a dawn raid. There is no protocol and nothing has changed. Dawn raids are being carried out against innocent families and repeated all over Glasgow. Is this the kind of society we want to live in?"

Noreen Rea, 57, who is a neighbour of the Benai family, said, "I have friends and neighbours who are asylum-seekers, from the Ivory Coast, Albania, Algeria, everywhere. Every time a dawn raid happens here, we are devastated."

Sandra White, SNP MSP for Glasgow, said: "I ask Jack McConnell to stand up for all of the peoples of Scotland and implement legislation which will ensure that this disgraceful situation where families are being plucked from their homes in dawn raids is discontinued."

Source: The Scotsman