Second Syrian refugee in Scotland to fight Rwandan flight plan

A Syrian survivor of childhood torture and detention has become the second person in Scotland to fight Home Office plans to deport him to Rwanda.

The 19-year-old Syrian, who we are calling Kassim to protect his identity, was a child when war broke out in his home country. He said he was detained and tortured by the regime at 13.

He escaped to Libya last year and claims he was also detained there, beaten and forced to work without pay in the construction industry with other migrants. Finally he fled through Europe to the UK. But when he arrived in May he was not allowed to claim asylum, and was instead detained in Brook House immigration removal centre.

He was among the first group of migrants that the UK Government planned to deport to Rwanda under its new immigration plan. The first flight was due to take off on June 15, but cancelled at the 11th hour after a European Court of Human Rights ruling.

Latta Law solicitor, Kyle Dalziel, challenged plans to remove Kassim and he was finally bailed. Dalziel is now challenging the decision to find his asylum claim “inadmissible”.

The solicitor is also representing another Syrian man – Abdulrahman – who travelled from Calais with Kassim and had also been detained before being bailed to family in Glasgow last month. The Ferret news site and The Post reported on his fight to claim asylum through the Scottish courts last month.

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Dalziel described the Rwanda plan as “a policy of deliberate cruelty” and is calling for it to be scrapped. This comes as the plans were this week due to be scrutinised by the Home Affairs Select Committee. Home Secretary Priti Patel refused to appear in front of the committee as requested, amid government instability.

Kassim told The Ferret he fled Syria for Libya last June. “I was looking for a job but was kidnapped by militia and detained there for 45 days,” he said. “It happened twice – the second time for 43 days. Both times we ran away. We were forced to do work in construction and we were beaten and tortured.”

He managed to leave in April with Abdulrahman and finally the two Syrians then attempted to cross the Channel. This time they were rescued by the UK coastguard after their boat began filling with water.

On arrival both were detained. “I was expecting I would be safer here in the UK,” Kassim said. “I didn’t know anything about Rwanda before I came to the UK. It was only in detention that I heard of the plan for the first time.”

Due to a spelling mistake in his name, Kassim wasn’t brought to his own bail hearing. He was also held in detention for an additional five days due to the bureaucratic error.

Finally he was released and is now staying in Glasgow with a cousin. “I was eight when the war started,” he said. “We moved from place to place looking for safety. When we walked we could see corpses – bodies without arms or legs. The regime burned relatives alive in front of me.

“I was detained by the regime for seven days when I was 13-years-old. They took my clothes off and chained me to the wall, a bit off the floor. They took a photo of me and sent it to my dad – they told him if you don’t pay we will kill him.

“When I was a child I saw things that people wouldn’t ever see if they lived a lifetime. I still get flashbacks at night.”

According to 2014 United Nations report, children in Syria suffered “unspeakable” horrors during the early years of the war, including sexual violence. Sonya Sceats, chief executive at charity Freedom from Torture, said: “Anyone with a conscience cannot fail to be moved by this young man’s harrowing story. This government’s callous decision to imprison him and threaten him with removal to Rwanda lays bare the inhumanity of its treatment of people fleeing torture and war.”

Anne McLaughlin MP, SNP spokesperson for asylum and immigration, said: “I call on the Tory leadership hopefuls to show us which one of them understands the meaning of the word humanity. But I hold out zero hope for that.”

The Home Office said it “takes the welfare of people in our care extremely seriously and we have a range of safeguards in place, including round the clock access to healthcare professionals for those in detention.”