Asylum seekers' damages bid fails

Asylum seekers' damages bid fails

A High Court judge rejected the application

A family of asylum seekers who were racially victimised after being housed in Glasgow have failed in their bid to be compensated for alleged violations of humans rights.

Mehmet Gezer, a Turkish Kurd, had claimed his right to respect for his private and family life had been breached when he was moved to the city's Toryglen estate.

Mr Gezer, 51, lost his High Court battle for damages under human rights laws.

A judge spoke of the "shame of the UK" over the case, but nevertheless rejected the application.

Mr Gezer had launched a High Court claim for compensation against Home Secretary David Blunkett and the National Asylum Support Service (Nass).

'Intimidation and violence'

He also wanted a declaration that the decision of Nass in September 2001 to disperse him and his family to a tough Glasgow estate infringed the European Convention on Human Rights.

Mr Gezer had accused Nass of failing to protect him, his wife, Altun, and their children from being sworn at, spat on and threatened in Toryglen.

Mr Justice Moses, sitting in London, said no one could fail to feel sympathy for the family as the "undisputed social intimidation and violence" its members suffered "brings shame upon any country which holds itself out as a safe haven against persecution".

Groups of people hanging around the Toryglen estate threatened them with dogs, spat at them and swore at them

Mr Justice Moses

But the treatment meted out to them "was not the treatment to which the UK or its agents itself subjected the claimant and his family".

And the decision to disperse the family "did not amount to a failure to provide adequate protection" against inhuman and degrading treatment under Article 3 of the convention.

The judge told the court Mr Gezer arrived in the UK with his daughter, Esme, now 14, in September 2000, to join his sons Hassan, 23, and Huseyin, 21 who were already in the country.

Later that same month his wife and youngest son, Ibrahim, now 15, also arrived, and in September 2001, they were moved to Glasgow under the national dispersal scheme, designed to take the pressure off services in London.

On the city's Toryglen estate, said the judge, they faced considerable "hostility and intimidation".

Knife attack

The judge added that Mr Gezer - who says he was a victim of torture in Turkey - tried to throw himself out of a window, and neighbouring asylum seekers had their windows smashed.

"Groups of people hanging around the Toryglen estate threatened them with dogs, spat at them and swore at them," said the judge.

In October 2001 their home was attacked and Ibrahim was "threatened with a knife".

The family returned to London, but Nass soon told them to go back to the Toryglen estate despite their protestations, and when they refused to go, they were denied food vouchers until 30 January, 2002.

The following March the family were granted some financial support and allowed to say in London.