NEWS RELEASE
Sunday 29 August 2004
DUNGAVEL IS PART OF THE PRISON SYSTEM SAYS STUC In a solidarity message sent to today's demonstration at HM Prison Greenock, organised by the Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, STUC General Secretary Bill Speirs said:
"The STUC is alarmed at the actions to place asylum seekers in Greenock Prison. These people have been convicted of no crime. I cannot understand why they are being treated like criminals".
"By transferring asylum seekers between Dungavel and a prison, the Home Office has confirmed what we already suspected, that Dungavel is part of the prison service".
"The STUC will continue its campaign to end the detention of innocent people in Dungavel, and urges the Home Office to end the indiscriminate detention of asylum seekers in prisons and detention centres".
"When innocent people are forced to take such desperate actions as a hunger strike it becomes even more apparent that we have to find civilized alternatives to Dungavel. Unions work, for social justice as well as economic justice, and we are going to keep working on this issue until it is resolved.
Keep up the struggle."
ENDS
For further details, contact:
Bill Speirs, STUC General Secretary Mary Senior, Assistant Secretary Glasgow Committee to Welcome Refugees