By Clare Jerrom and Reg McKay.
Protesting Kurds taunted by mob
Kurdish refugees were pelted with stones and taunted by gangs of youths as they marched in protest at the murder of asylum seeker Firsat Yildiz.
The 22-year-old was stabbed to death in what police believe may have been a racially motivated attack.
Hours after Kurdish refugees staged a silent vigil outside council offices, Sighthill estate residents held a counter-demonstration claiming refugees are treated better than council residents of the estate.
The Kurdish protesters believe the estate has become a dumping ground for more than 2,000 asylum seekers. They criticised the council for receiving £20 million from the government to shelter refugees, but spending nothing on improving conditions on the estate.
Local families say there has been 70 race related attacks on refugees living in the area in the past 14 months.
Source:- The Times Tuesday 7 August page 4
A tragedy waiting to happen, say critics of dispersal system
The murder of Firsat Yildiz in Glasgow was particularly depressing for many refugee welfare workers, because the city had become one of the better aspects of Britain’s asylum seeker dispersal system.
Glasgow did not feature strongly as a destination when the dispersal system was initially set up. But the Scottish city made strenuous efforts to welcome the 3,500 asylum seekers who were sent to live on deprived estates in empty council flats.
But despite efforts of Glasgow council, welfare workers believe the dispersal system is not what was originally outlined by home office ministers
It was promised that asylum seekers would be sent to "cluster areas" where there were existing ethnic minority groups who could support asylum seekers. It was also guaranteed they would not be left isolated on hard to let sink estates.
Robina Qureshi, of Scottish housing charity Positive Action in Housing, said: "The government must have known that bringing empty council houses into use for asylum seekers would result in mass concentration of asylum seekers and fuel racial tensions in already deprived council estates."
"Asylum seekers should have a say in where they are relocated. They need to be in areas where they feel safe," she added.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 7 August page 3
Kent has 1,200 child asylum-seekers in care
More than 1,200 child asylum seekers arriving in Britain without a parent or guardian have been taken into care by Kent social services.
The influx of unaccompanied minors has soared over the last two years and department of health figures show 6,000 children across England are in care, compared with 2,500 in 1999.
In Kent, the problem is more astute and there is a stream of more than 100 children arriving each month.
Professional traffickers are to blame for most of the children brought from Middle Eastern or Eastern European countries.
Peter Gilroy, Kent council’s director of social services, said: "Some who arrive are as young as eight, while more than 60 per cent are aged 16 or 17, or claim to be so. Many have suffered or witnessed persecution and might be bereaved or anxious about families."
Younger children are placed in foster placements while teenagers are placed in shared lodgings where social workers support them.
Source:- The Independent Tuesday 7 August page 1
New rules to speed adoption
National standards on adoption will be announced by the government today, alongside a national register designed to speed up the matching of children with families who wish to adopt.
Jewish charity Norwood Ravenswood is expected to win the contract to operate the register, which ministers hope will enable local authorities to find families further afield if adoption cannot be arranged locally.
The prime minister has expressed his wish to increase the number of children adopted since the report on abuse at children’s homes in north Wales.
The government has pledged to increase adoptions from local authority care by 40 per cent.
The new standards on adoption were published in draft at the same time as the white paper on adoption last December.
Children were included in the working group to produce the draft, co-ordinated by British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 7 August page 8
Young killers await sentence ruling
The court ruling that helped James Bulger’s killers win their freedom could result in three young murderers having their sentences reduced today.
Lord chief justice Lord Woolf will announce whether he has decided to revise the original minimum sentence that Darren Dermody, Bernard Coddington and Tahir Malik must serve before their release is decided by the parole board.
In December 1999 the European court of human rights ruled that the minimum sentences for child killers should be decided by the lord chief justice, and not the home secretary.
It was this ruling that allowed Robert Thompson and Jon Venables to be released after eight years and not 15, the original decision made by former home secretary Michael Howard.
Dermody kicked and stamped a man to death, Coddington got into a "fight to the death" with another boy whom he killed over a dispute over a former girlfriend, and Malik, a disturbed teenager with learning difficulties, strangled a nine-year-old boy.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 7 August page 9
Scottish newspapers
Double standards claim on care funding
Scottish Care has accused Scottish local authorities of double standards on funding residential care of older people as it was revealed that one council has increased charges for privately funded residents in council-run homes by between £84 and £122 per week.
The move, by Argyll and Bute Council, comes at a time when the Scottish executive has offered only £10 per resident per week extra for those in privately run care. Douglas Hendry, director of housing and social work, said that care in Argyll and Bute cost more because of the remoteness of the area.
Source:- The Herald Tuesday 7 August page 4
Murder forces change of policy on dispersal
The murder of a young asylum seeker, Firsat Yildiz, at the weekend has forced Glasgow Council to rethink its policy on dispersal within the city.
The change came on the day that council representatives met with asylum seeker and refugee groups following civil demonstrations in the city at the weekend. Now asylum seekers will be accommodated in a range of areas throughout Glasgow rather than mainly Sighthill where half are now housed.
Parkhead and Knightswood have already been identified. Glasgow Council will now ask other Scottish local authorities to accept asylum seekers and refugees. So far, of Scottish councils, only Glasgow provides accommodation. The proposals have already received the backing of the Scottish executive and the Commission for Racial Equality.
Source:- The Herald Tuesday 7 August
