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High profile asylum seekers have been moved away from Dungavel Detention Centre only days before a formal visit by a cross-party group of MSPs and voluntary organisations, writes Reg McKay.

Dungavel, a former prison converted into a detention centre for 148 failed asylum seekers last year, was the scene of a hunger strike by 40 people protesting against conditions and the length of time taken to process their applications and appeals. The strike lasted only lasted a few days, but it attracted the concern of MSPs and voluntary groups.

The Scottish parliament’s cross-party group on refugees and asylum seekers had asked to meet with 10 high profile asylum seekers at Dungavel. Of these, the Garza’s, a Romano family with a disabled child, a Nigerian, Dotun Adeosun, and Romanov Votslov, a young Russian in his twenties who had recently tried to commit suicide by cutting his wrists, have all been removed from Dungavel.

Shona Robinson, convenor of the cross-party group of MSPs, said: "I am very concerned when some of these people are disappearing, and nobody can get any information about them."

Sally Daghlian, director of the Scottish Refugee Council, said: "Britain continues to detain more asylum seekers for longer with less scrutiny than any other European country. It is not surprising if people who are detained indefinitely take desperate measures to highlight their situation."

Last week, home office minister Angela Eagle was forced into a public defence of Dungavel, saying that groups claiming that there were delays in the detention of asylum seekers there, were exaggerating. The home office’s own figures show that 28 per cent of those in UK detention centres are there for more than four months.

A spokesperson for the home office declined to comment on individual cases but added: "Detention is not entered into lightly. We try to ensure it is used mainly to facilitate removal from the country and for as short a time as possible."