The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Tackling ‘ignorance’ on asylum
Glasgow Girls, the musical drama based on the true story of seven teenagers fighting to prevent the deportation of an asylum-seeking family, is at Perth Theatre from January 30 to February 3
When Glenrothes-raised theatre director Cora Bissett was drawn to the story of the Glasgow Girls in 2010, she had no idea that the issue of refugees and asylum seekers would become the most urgent question of our times.
Based on the true story of seven teenagers from Drumchapel, whose lives changed forever in 2005 when their school friend and her asylumseeking family were forcibly taken from their home to be deported, the self-titled Glasgow Girls took a stand to fight for her rights, and ultimately the rights of all children of asylum seekers.
They inspired a whole community to unite behind its residents and, later in 2010, inspired Cora to turn their story into a musical with the award-winning show going on to play across the UK to sold-out audiences.
Now, as the Glasgow Girls arrive at Perth Theatre as part of a new UK tour, Cora told The Courier she is “saddened” that issues of migration continue to be so prevalent – and that western governments often have a huge impact on the various wars that ultimately displace millions of innocent people from their homes.
“The great, wide issue of migration – of the rights of people to move in and out of countries and who holds those rights and who decides on those borders – is the burning question and battleground of our modern world,” said Cora in an interview with The Courier.
“It’s just incredible how complex the issue is, but also how overly complex people make it. Everyone in the world is just trying to find a place of safety. That’s all anybody really wants.
“I think what people forget (in the UK) when they are hit with the hyperbole and this idea that anyone is blessed with this God-given right to be a protected people, is that it’s just nuts.
“Every human being on the planet has the right to seek asylum if they are fleeing from war, from danger, from persecution. People have that legal right and also they are usually fleeing from wars that our government has had a part in creating. So it’s our fault! I just think there’s so much ignorance around the whole issue.”
Working with her new independent theatre production company, Raw Material, Cora said it had been a “joy” to reunite the 2016 cast.
However, the demand for the show was still there, and she is delighted to have kept in touch with the real-life Glasgow Girls – including Roza Salih – who gave it their blessing. Roza arrived in Scotland in 2001 to seek asylum. Her family had fled Kurdistan in northern Iraq after her grandfather and two uncles had been executed for opposing Saddam Hussein.
In 2005, at the age of 15, she co-founded the real Glasgow Girls with fellow pupils from Drumchapel High School.
The Glasgow Girls campaigned to stop the UK Border Agency carrying out dawn raids and detaining and then deporting children, successfully preventing the deportation of their school friend, Agnesa Murselaj, a Roma from Kosovo.
Roza, the co-founder of Scottish Solidarity with Kurdistan, graduated in law and politics from Strathclyde University and the 29-year-old is now office manager for Glasgow South West SNP MP Chris Stephens.
She said the production has been “inspiring” for many people coming together to fight for what they believe in.
However, she said there continues to be a lot of ignorance around the reasons why asylum seekers flee their own countries. Education is the key, she said, and the show had an important role to play in helping more people understand the issues.
“Everyone in the world is just trying to find a place of safety.