Tuesday 9 March 2010

Red Road Protests Today

Residents of Red Road in Glasgow have called for a protest today at 11:00 outside the Home Office reporting centre on Brand Street, Glasgow in memory of the three people who fell to their death on Sunday morning from one of the tower blocks in Red Road. The three people who died are thought to have been a Russian family who had lived in Red Road for two months.

It is difficult to understand why it has taken the police more than 24 hours to identify the three people as all asylum seekers are repeatedly asked to give their finger-prints by the Home Office and their landlords, the YMCA, should be able to tell the police who was living in the flat at the time.

Neighbours have told the Unity Centre, a volunteer-run migrants support centre in Glasgow, that Strathclyde police visited the people's flat on the 15th floor last Friday to tell them that their asylum case had been refused and that they would have to leave the flat. In our experience the police only come to the door of a refused asylum seeker at the request of the landlord after the family have refused to leave their accommodation. So far, the YMCA who were landlords for the three are refusing to comment to the media.

At the moment, the Home Office are denying any involvement however it has been known for asylum seekers to be so desperate that they jump from their windows if they think they are about be detained in a dawn raid by the Home Office's Enforcement Team. Neighbours have said that they thought the Home Office had been there on Sunday morning when the three jumped.

Yesterday 30 residents of the Red Road flats laid flowers and candles outside 63 Petershill Drive to commemorate the deaths of the three people who jumped to their deaths. They have also asked for people to come to Petershill Drive at 18:00 today with banners demanding freedom and safety for all asylum seekers.

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