A migrant charity has said it is investigating legal action against the Home Office for “casting aspersions” on two Indian nationals detained in Glasgow as “illegal” immigrants.
Lakhvir Singh and Sumit Sehdev were released from Border Force detention after crowds swarmed around the van in which they were held, preventing it from leaving Kenmure Street in Pollokshields on Thursday.
Demonstrators blocked the vehicle for several hours, with one even lying underneath its axles, before police released the pair on public safety grounds.
Scottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf has blamed the Home Office for its “reckless action”, while First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has attacked its “appalling asylum and immigration policy”.
The two men were eventually released from the immigration enforcement van after several hours (Andrew Milligan/PA)
Mr Singh and Mr Sehdev, both aged in their 30s and reportedly a mechanic and chef respectively, have lived in the UK for several years and are “part of a community”, said refugee and migrant charity Positive Action in Housing.
READ MORE: Kenmure Street: Nicola Sturgeon says Home Office must ask itself 'hard questions'
The charity’s director Robina Qureshi said: “The Home Office have referred to these men as illegal.
“Well they are wrong, and we are now investigating legal action against the Home Office for casting such aspersions.
“The term illegal in this context is part of the hostile environment. It’s not appropriate to use it for people who have lived in the UK for several years and are part of a community.
One protester positioned himself under the van to ensure it could not leave (Andrew Milligan/PA)
“The men now have legal representation and are in the process of trying to regularise their status.
“The fact that they had no active legal representation before means they were left vulnerable.”
READ MORE: Priti Patel accused of breaching ministerial code over PPE lobbying
Jelina Berlow Rahman, a lawyer instructed to represent Mr Singh, said he has been in the country since 2008 and “has a right to a private life, a family life”.
She added: “It was evident the number of people who came together, that was his community, that was neighbours, that was his friends – the majority of people knew him.”
Ms Qureshi added: “Dawn raid vans have no place going into communities dragging innocent people from their homes. They are not, categorically not, criminals.”
Hundreds of people joined the protest against the men’s removal (Andrew Milligan/PA)
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman said: “The UK Government is tackling illegal immigration and the harm it causes, often to the most vulnerable people, by removing those with no right to be in the UK.
“The operation in Glasgow was conducted in relation to suspected immigration offences and the two Indian nationals complied with officers at all times.
“The UK Government continues to tackle illegal migration in all its forms and our New Plan for Immigration will speed up the removal of those who have entered the UK illegally.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel