‘Thursday’s events made it clear that Westminster’s hostile environment has no place in Glasgow’
WHEN Lakhvir Singh and Sumit Sehdev, the two men at the centre of Thursday’s failed dawn raid, were detained, neither had active legal representation.
Lawyer Jelina Berlow Rahman, who now represents Mr Singh, said: “Lakhvir Singh has been here since 2008, a substantial period of time, therefore in my opinion he still has a right to a private life and a family life. It was evident from the number of people who came together that this was his community, his neighbours, his friends. The majority of people knew him.”
Lawyers are currently investigating their cases. The Home Office has referred to the men as “illegal”. Firstly, it’s not possible for a human being to be illegal. That term is in keeping with the Home Secretary’s hostile attitude towards refugees and migrants. It is all part of the hostile environment.
Such dehumanising, tabloid terminology has no place in a progressive society. Certainly it’s not appropriate to use for people who have lived in the UK for several years and are part of a community. The fact that Lakhvir and Sumit had no active legal representation means they were left vulnerable. They now have this in place, and are in the process of trying to regularise their status.
More importantly, they are not criminals – just innocent people trying to build a new life. And what’s wrong with that?
Scotland needs people to contribute to its tax base. We should be helping them contribute those taxes, not forbidding them from working, reducing them to a state of destitution, stigmatising and criminalising them for having hopes and aspirations that fit with our society’s needs.
Right now, many hundreds of people in Glasgow – and thousands across the UK – are in the unpleasant position of not possessing the right piece of paper. I was born an immigrant – it’s the only way to describe my life and experience, and I remember seeing through a child’s eyes, without understanding, the panic and rush in my father and mother’s demeanour to get us the right piece of paper as the latest news headlines reported the government of the day threatening to clamp down on us.
“They were in our country for 100 years, now we are barely here and already they want us out,” my mother would say.
Many of this city’s immigrants are working or studying on the same wing and prayer. Overseas students are struggling to pay their exorbitant university fees because of the lockdown which shut down the restaurants they worked in. When fees are overdue, universities send reminders and invoke the threat of immigration removal.
Immigrants on limited leave to remain are working in the NHS or elderly care homes and struggling on low pay to save up the thousands of pounds needed to pay the Home Office when their temporary leave to remain runs out. If they don’t make that payment, they risk losing their job, their home, their status.
Everything they worked so hard to build begins to crumble.
Not because they are “criminals” but because of a piece of paper with an expired date that costs thousands to renew.
How many more vans are going to go out in our city? They have no place going into our communities and dragging innocent people from their homes. Perhaps Police Scotland should be focusing on going after real criminals.
The events of Thursday make it clear that Westminster’s hostile environment has no place 400 miles away in Glasgow. The “Kenmure Street Van Man” who crawled under the immigration enforcement van seeks no reward or recognition, or to be a known name, Even more reason for us to celebrate this remarkable young man.
Robina Qureshi is executive director of Positive Action in Housing, a Scottish refugee and migrants’ homelessness and human rights charity