Asylum seekers avoid party

Organisers hoped 300 children would attend

Many asylum seekers have stayed away from a children's party designed to bring them together with their Scottish neighbours.

Organisers expected about 300 people to attend the event in Glasgow on Sunday - but only a fraction of that number turned up.

And they fear that some families did not join the party because they feel unwelcome outside their own community.

Rev Neil Galbraith voiced his fears

The event at Cathcart Old Parish Church was organised by a number of organisations, including churches, charities, the police, fire brigade and Glasgow City Council.

The aim was to bring the children of asylum seekers together with the youngsters from the communities where they are now housed.

Organisers hope the children will grow up as friends and help eradicate the stigma attached to asylum seeker status.

Glasgow - The Caring City was expecting 300 people to attend.

But Rev Neil Galbraith said he feared that asylum seekers felt scared to venture out of the communities where they now live.

Play together

He believes that housing families together in areas which already have many problems of their own gives the communities a ghetto atmosphere where they have nowhere to escape from their trauma.

Speaking before the event, he said it was making a statement that Glasgow was not a terrible city.

"A child is a child no matter where in the world they come from, and if we can get them from an early age to play together then hopefully the stigma that surrounds refugee families will disappear," he said.

Many asylum seekers have been housed in Sighthill

Children's charity NCH Scotland hopes to establish a project to offer direct help and support to asylum seeker families in the city.

Most of the 4,500 asylum seekers in Scotland have been housed in Glasgow - many of them in the Sighthill area.

However, a number of attacks have been reported on those in the city.

Strathclyde Police - which has received reports of about 90 racially motivated attacks so far this year - has admitted that many asylum seekers are too afraid to go outside after dark.

The force is attempting to build bridges with the asylum seeker community, and officers are now patrolling the streets of Sighthill with an interpreter.

The city council has also held talks with the Scottish Refugee Council in a bid to make the streets safer and change attitudes to those taking refuge in Glasgow.