Firstly, I think the dawn raids, Brand street reporting time arrests, weekend detentions / removals are acts of cowardice by UK government and immigration officials. If a person is to be denied the right to sanctuary and freedom in UK, then there are more humane ways to do it. First of all, ensure the decision-making process is fair and just in the first place. Secondly, if someone is due to be removed, then that person should be given the right to access legal advice so that if they have not exhausted all their options, then they are given time to do so. It seems the government wants to produce targets for their PR war on immigration issues...fine, but make sure they target the Mr Bigs of immigration or the ones who have disappeared from the asylum and immigration process completely. But obviously it easier and cheaper to target innocent women, men and kids who do comply with the system. I hope the MPs of Scotland hang their heads in shame for not standing up against xenophobia caused by lies and unjust hate. One day we will all be called to account for actions we take in life...The MPs who just don't care will one day have to look in the mirror and really repent for supporting racism and hatred in our society when really they could have made a difference by standing up for the oppressed and abused when times have been hostile socially and politically. I respect Mohammed Sarwar MP (I have no respect for New Labour party as they have just become the same arrogant and complacent selfish greedy characters that we despised in Tory party) for at least supporting the Raymond family even though the final decision for their future safety does not lie with him. May the Raymonds be allowed to stay in UK without fear and without restriction. We know that in some parts of the world, Christianity cannot be practised freely - our Government (Home Office) know that, so why they still want to send Raymond family to Pakistan to suffer terribly as a minority faith when independent reports show that there are groups of people who will vent their opposition to minority faiths through violence.

Am so sorry for those couple we dont really know when this is going to end now they are mentioning immigration! immigration!! they are not bother about those that are in detention,they are not bother about people been depress about people coming to their house to remove them all they are bother is about bulgaria and romania joining EU they've forgoten people who really need help ama britishman married to africa lady we had baby together and home office want to remove them back to there country and if you call on this they are not ready to attend to you when is it going to stop deporting people.

I know of one case of this happening in Leeds, do people know of any others?

This almost sounds like a tactic to scare people into leaving, it would be good to know how seriously it is being taken - eg what has happened to those not taking these flights and have people been taken into detention before the date of the voluntary removal? Does anyone have reports of whether people actually have taken the voluntary removal flights?

At least 70-100 families have recieved these letters in Glasgow over the last two months.

Most families have fled the safe homes they have made over the last three, four or five years instead of reporting to the airport. Despite these letters being called 'Voluntary' Removal Notices families are scared that a failure to report to the airport will result in their immediate detention.

As a result they miss their reporting times and within a short period of time - a matter of weeks - they lose their NASS benefits and have their flats sealed up.

Forcible Removals - by dawn raids and holding families in detention prior to the removal flights - are very expensive, costing on average £11,000 per family. Many fail due to incompetence by the Home Office.

This new tactic by the Home Office - of issuing voluntary removal notices - is a lot cheaper and also conveniantly means the family drop out of official statistics as once they fail to report they stop being asylum seekers.

For the cost of a letter the Home Office can really save some money and reduce the official number of asylum seekers all at the same time. (Though this tactic has no real affect on the number of people living in Britain and of course leads to real fear and extreme hardship of the families involved who in a short period of time go from being relatively secure to having to go into hiding and being made homeless and penniless.)

Those families that are brave however have found that the threat of detention is hollow. Two families last week went to report despite missing flights and found in one mother's case that she was treated exactly as usual - almost as if they hadn't realised her and her daughter and severly disabled son should have left the country the week before. The second mother was shouted at and threatened with detention but still left the reporting centre a free woman.

In another case one family sought refuge in their church and thanks to the support of their priest and the publicity they received managed to get a reprieve.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/5364542.stm

We have not heard of anyone actually reporting for the removal flight - in almost all cases, families have moved to stay with friends while waiting on their lawyers to either get judicial reviews of the removal notice (because at least one member of the family has a case outstanding still) or put in a fresh case.

Once a judicial review is applied for the removal notice is automatically suspended, and if the flight is missed as a result a new removal letter needs to be issued before teh family can be detained for removal.

We have started trying to leaflet people getting on the same flights as people being forcibly removed at Glasgow Airport (having been held in Dungavel detention centre) and this has had some effect. The removal letter will contain the flight number, date and time and you need to go to the airline's checking in desk with flyers about two hours before hand. This is something that could be extended to include families responding to these voluntary removal notices by people trying to help them.

There was an article about voluntary removals in this weeks Sunday Herald with details of how several families in Glasgow have been affected by it -  http://www.sundayherald.com/58119

The UNITY Centre
30 Ibrox Street
Glasgow
0141 427 7992

theunitycentre [at] btconnect.com

Hip Hip Hooray1 At long last the Home Office appears to be taking action and getting rid of Glasgow's and Britain's ever growing burden of expensive so-called asylum seekers. GET THEM ALL OUT NOW!

Betrayed Glaswegian.