The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
With open arms: warm welcome to refugees
ARCHIVES: COURIER COUNTRY'S KINDNESS TO NEW RESIDENTS
As Tayside and Fife welcomes its first Syrian refugees this winter, The Courier has delved into the archives to discover the region’s fine pedigree of welcoming refugees.
As well as large influxes of refugees from Eastern Europe, there were various smaller groups which settled in the area. During the ’80s many Vietnamese “boat people” risked a gruelling sea voyage to escape the post-war Communist regime.
They settled all over the UK but Glenrothes was the first Scottish authority to make a firm offer of accommodation and welcomed the Lu family in February 1980 to their own, fully-furnished home.
Families were also housed in St Andrews and the Charleston Home Centre was set up to accommodate the refugees in Montrose. Others were later resettled in local authority housing in Dundee and Arbroath.
In 1976 Dundee celebrated the arrival of a new Chilean community, after taking 50 refugees when the government of Salvador Allende was overthrown.
Although many could not speak English, they were able to take up language courses and some went on to take up studies or university research.
The UK had about 1,500 Chilean refugees at the time, and many more were taken in by Sweden, France, Canada, Italy and other South American nations.
When a fishing boat of Estonian refugees – 11 men, six women and a young girl – sailed into Montrose harbour in 1946, The Courier of the time revealed the first question asked was: “We can dance here tonight?”
They had been driven from Estonia by the war and scattered all over Scandinavia before they gradually drifted to Stockholm and decided to take a boat to Scotland. They had been trying to sail to Aberdeen when a storm blew their boat to Montrose.
Forfar opened its arms to the homeless Zgorskis in 1960, after the family spent 20 years in German prison camps, then refugee camps. The family, Mr and Mrs Wladyslaw Zgorski and their two children, Maria and Irena, came to the country following a local effort that saw 30 Manor Street purchased for them.
The house had been furnished and carpeted and when the couple saw it they reportedly “wept for joy”. Cleaning materials and a full cupboard of food had been gifted by the generous local Forfar community.
Elsewhere in Courier Country, two Polish families were adopted by the Fife village of Culross in 1962. An event saw the families welcomed in their own language and members of the community were invited to and visit the home, many bringing small housewarming gifts.