BY Ian Dunn | May 1 | 
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Church wants human rights inspection of Dungavel
The Catholic Church in Scotland has backed a campaign for independent groups to be granted access to the immigration detention centre at Dungavel.
The Church, along with the STUC, the Church of Scotland, the Muslim Council of Britain and the Scottish Refugee Council have been seeking access to Dungavel following reports of an on-going hunger strike by detainees. However the Home Office has declined to allow outside groups to visit the facility.
The STUC condemned the ban on access and has now asked for the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Scottish Human Rights Commission to inspect Dungavel, saying: “We believe a Human Rights based inspection is sorely needed.”
The Catholic Church statement said it ‘support[s] the STUC’s call for a human-rights based inspection of Dungavel to ensure that all people being detained there are being treated fairly and with respect.”
A Church of Scotland statement added: “We absolutely think there should be a human rights based investigation of Dungavel as there is no time limit to when people can be held at the facility and that has got to be causing an erosion of mental health.”
Latest figures show 41 out of the current 185 detainees in Dungavel have been held for more than three months and, in some, cases more than a year.
—This story ran in full in the May 1 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.
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