At the age of five, Scots born Serhat has been taken from his home in Toryglen, put in prison and been forced to attend a court.

This happened last month. His crime? His mother Zubeyede and his father Mehmet Doldur have been seeking asylum in the UK.

On the day Serhat was to have been taken to buy his school uniform, the family – including his 4-year-old sister Gulban –were removed to Dungavel detention centre in Lanarkshire directly from the Home Office obligatory ‘signing in’ session at Brand Street, Govan. The family has an ongoing judicial review at the High Court in London but were refused bail in Glasgow.

Zubeyede has two sisters and three brothers in Britain with their families. All have leave to remain. The family lived near each other in Turkey in an area where 300,000 Kurds have been displaced. They have a long history of political opposition to the government.

They belong to a minority group of Kurdish Turks – the Alevi who are liberal Muslims. In Turkey the family had been harassed and arrested. Zubeyede witnessed her own mother being badly beaten by police and suffers post traumatic stress disorder as a result of this and of her own treatment in Turkey. The family history makes it very dangerous for Zubeyede and Mehmet to return. In any case, their village is empty of people, the houses have been destroyed.

But in a courtroom in Glasgow on Thursday 31 August, they were returned to Dungavel to await the London court hearing outcome despite the fact that two respected Turkish-born, British citizens were prepared to put up bail of £4000 to allow the family to return to their home in Toryglen to await the London court decision.

The Doldur family, including both children were brought to the courtroom in the Eagle Building in Bothwell Street in a security van from Dungavel. There were 13 seats for the general public to witness the court process. When addressing Zubeyede and Mehmet the judge spoke clearly and slowly to enable the interpreter to translate. But for most of the time the legal debate between the Judge, the Home Office solicitor and the Doldur’s solicitor was conducted in conversational tones inaudible to the public, far less comprehensible to anyone. There was no sound system in operation.

Afterwards Zubeyede’s sister and friends and supporters of the family expressed their horror at what had happened.

Jock Morris, Chair of the Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees and recently retired as a teacher at Shawlands Academy said, ‘This family came here to escape trauma. They have made Glasgow their home in the years they have been waiting for their case to be processed. This is the only home the two children know. They have expectations of the future but these have been crudely taken away from them. I know from teaching what effect this experience must be having on them. Children see their friends disappear. Other children are afraid. A wave of fear goes through the community. It is state terrorism, in my opinion.’

A distressed Guley, sister of Zubeyede said, ‘My brain has stopped. This is terrible. There is NOBODY for them to return to. The village is empty, the houses are destroyed.’

Brenda Wilson a friend and neighbour in Toryglen said, ‘I’m devastated. This is so unjust. This is a mother and father fighting for a decent life for their children. Have these children no rights? We have been praying for the family in St Brigid’s and we’ll keep on praying till they can come home to Toryglen.’