Russian family commits suicide after being denied asylum in UK

[Hannah Bell]

13 March 2010

Neighbours heard screams as Sergei Serykh, his wife Tatiana and their 21-year-old son fell from the 15th floor of a Glasgow tower block at 8:45 a.m. last Sunday morning...The family had recently been told by the UK Borders Agency (UKBA) their asylum claim had been rejected. They had been asked to leave their high rise accommodation in the city’s Red Road flats. Facing deportation or, at the very least, destitution consequent to failure to make it through the UK’s asylum machinery, the family concluded that their situation was beyond hope.

The tragedy highlights the terrible circumstances faced by asylum seekers in the UK. From their first arrival asylum seekers, should they manage to correctly register their appeal at an airport, seaport or police station, face an uphill battle against deportation. They will first be sent to one of several dispersal sites around the UK. Red Road in Glasgow is one such location. Cheaply built in the 1960s, the site consists of 30 storey flats which are now half empty and due to be pulled down. The local area has few amenities and the flats are very basic.

Over the following months and years asylum claimants, fleeing all manner of social calamities will be interviewed by the UKBA... Fully 70 percent are rejected immediately. Of the 30 percent accepted only 20 percent of these―just six percent of the total―are accepted as refugees...

After an application is rejected, the Home Office suspends such minimal financial assistance as is available, usually within 21 days. A removal order is then issued. Thereafter UKBA’s Borders Police are likely to seize people without notice, often at dawn, and incarcerate them in Dungavel or Yarl’s Wood detention centre pending deportation.

Many destitute failed asylum seekers are reduced to begging and sleeping on friends' floors. People facing deportation are reported to prefer sleeping on stairs in the Red Road flats, rather than risk a visit from the Borders Police.

Suicides among those caught in this terrifying situation are not uncommon. According to the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns, at least 55 asylum seekers have taken their own lives since 2000. In Glasgow in 2006, Zamira Sadigova jumped out of an 11th floor flat. She was killed as police were breaking down the door to section her under the Mental Health Act. The following year, also in Glasgow, Uddav Bhandari, from Nepal, doused himself in petrol and set himself alight in the offices of the Immigration Tribunal. He died shortly after.

In contrast to the shock and outpouring of sympathy for the Serykh family and the thousands of people caught in similar circumstances―there are 5,000 asylum seekers living in Glasgow alone―the political and media response has been cynical...

Melanie Reid, a Times columnist. Reid described Sergei and his family as “members of the vast tribe of lost souls who swirl around the world, their past unverifiable, their present precarious, their future uncertain.”

But she insisted, “In asylum policy emotion must never replace hard facts. Britain cannot be the world’s social worker, and we must acknowledge that some people in this twilight world are beyond help and that their deaths should not lie on our conscience.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/asyl-m13.shtml

[vadawg]

1. glasgow has to be the worst city onearth to send refugees to

its a gang infested swamp with tribal rivalries that go back decades, and you throw these people into it getting benefits etc, people are not going to be happy.

[Hannah Bell]

2. it's also the richest city in scotland, & a financial center.

[vadawg]

3. yeah but the red road flats are a ghetto, as is the majority of the city

plus there are a lot of anti foreigner feelings that run through the city especially away from the little student enclaves in the west end. Not a nice place to be if your a refugee as can be surmised from all the dead seekers. hell if i had to live in the red road flats i would top myself..

[Hannah Bell]

4. kind of funny that the majority of the city is a ghetto while it's the richest city in scotland, a

financial center & the third-richest in the uk.

funny how that works.

funny those russians leaving russian-style capitalism for a better life in the wonderful west

[vadawg]

5. not really hard, it has a couple of nice areas, but the schemes are bad

as is the city center, i guess you must have been to the city, i have and its a fucking combat zone on friday nights...

[vadawg]

6. well if they wanted a better life then the red road flats sure as hell wasnt it

that is a full fledged combat zone, full of jakeys, chavs and junkies..

[blindpig]

8. Well, hell, that's just what I would expect.....

yep, it's funny, but who is laughing?

(those on their way to the bank)

k&r

[vadawg]

10. well according to Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) report as per the guardian

The 10 poorest British parliamentary constituencies

Glasgow Shettleston
Glasgow Springburn
Glasgow Maryhill
Birmingham Ladywood
Manchester Central
Camberwell and Peckham
Glasgow Bailleston
Liverpool Riverside
Hackney South/Shoreditch
Bethnal Green and Bow

seems that glasgow has the three top shitholes in the UK, and the red road flats are in the number 2 scheme springburn..

[anigbrowl]

11. Agreed. It's an utter shithole. Wild horses wouldn't drag me back there.

If it's the richest city in Scotland it's only because some successful corporations have their HQ there, eg BP who do North Sea Oil. So it might be rich in accounting terms but if you actually visit the place it's almost immediately obvious that it's a cesspit. As you can see, I have nothing good to say about it. The best thing about Glasgow is that trains depart the city on a regular basis offering the possibility of going elsewhere.

As for the case of this family, it's pretty tragic. I am opposed to immigration controls and basically think globalization needs to mean free movement of labor as well as capital.

[vadawg]

12. oh yes its a shithole, but there is the footie, and some of the night clubs are fun

but if anyone ever tries to pretend its hell on earth when it comes to outsiders then they are nuts... PS when were you there and whereabouts...

[anigbrowl]

13. About 2003, shuttling between there and Dundee for a year

I was near Trongate which is the arty bit of the city and tolerable. I guess I'm being vindictive about the place, but I really, really did not like most of the the people there.

[vadawg]

14. remember your an outsider, its very tribal, so the majority of people wouldnt like you

plus the trongate pretty much sucks :) still find it amusing that anyone can take the fact its the richest place in scotland and sxtrapolate that to mean its not as fucked up as the balkans...

[anigbrowl]

15. Agreed - I think that's part of what's wrong with it.

In any case, I think this tragic Russian family either made or were the victims of an unfortunate choice, depending on whether they chose or were assigned to their place of residence in Glasgow. There's nothing good you can say about this situation.

[Fumesucker]

7. They should have sought asylum in the US because they couldn't home school their kids..n/t

[vadawg]

9. good point, i wonder if others will start to use that as an asylum excuse

got to be much better than ending up in the red road flats...