A low-key welcome for Syrian refugees
IT may not appear to the new arrivals like much of a welcome. When they touch down on Scottish soil later today they will be processed air-side, then quietly driven away.
But, however low-key, the arrival of the charter flight from Lebanon at Glasgow Airport represents a significant milestone in the Syrian crisis.
On board the aircraft will be around 100 refugees from Syria – the first of 20,000 which David Cameron plans to resettle in the UK over the next five years.
Their arrival could hardly come at a time of greater tumult. In the aftermath of the IS attack on Paris it has emerged one of the suicide bombers had travelled to Europe posing as a Syrian refugee.
But both the Scottish and Westminster Governments insisted all refugees coming into Britain under the resettlement programme had been carefully vetted.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said they had ‘undergone stringent security checks’ and were themselves ‘fleeing the terror’ of IS. Home Secretary Theresa May, meanwhile, assured the public that the Syrian Vulnerable Peoples Relocation Scheme could not be infiltrated by IS.
She told the BBC. ‘We have processes in place. There are two levels of screening that take place.’
All 32 of Scotland’s local authorities have offered to house Syrians under the programme – and 17 of them say they could accommodate some families before Christmas.
By comparison, pledges of support from other parts of the UK are much thinner on the ground. Only 29 of the 401 remaining local authorities in the UK have volunteered to take refugees before Christmas and many are not on board at all.
David Symonds, chairman of the Local Government Association’s asylum and refugee taskforce, said: ‘We are in negotiation with the Home Office over funding, which is tied up within the comprehensive spending review. We are currently working out how to deal with it.’
On a visit to Glasgow Central Mosque yesterday for a minute’s silence in tribute to the Paris victims, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘We are due to welcome Syrian refugees to Scotland tomorrow and we need to show that we are a country of compassion and acceptance.
‘These people are fleeing their homes in the search for protection and security, and we’re their refuge. We can’t let the actions of the few destroy the safety of the many.’
The Syrians on the flight from Lebanon had been in a refugee camp. They will be housed in one of five council areas – Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire and North Ayrshire.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We are working closely with the Home Office who have robust and thorough screening processes in place.’ Police Scotland said they were ‘content with the arrangements’.
Meanwhile, Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s only Muslim minister, has called in police after being subjected to vile online abuse.
The international development minister has received messages on social media questioning if he has links with IS and been told to ‘get the f*** out my country’.
It is understood the MSP has reported at least nine incidents. Police Scotland confirmed that an investigation is under way.
Miss Sturgeon warned that hate crimes will not be tolerated.
Police Scotland confirmed a man, aged 19, was arrested on Saturday in connection with the Communications Act. Three men, aged 25, 26 and 29 were arrested in Glasgow on the same day for alleged racial breach of the peace. On Sunday, a man was arrested in Clydebank for a racial breach of the peace.
‘We need to show compassion’