Sanctuary City

Photographer Lindsay Docherty took these portraits of people living in the high flats at Sighthill, Red Road and Kingsway in Glasgow – areas which have adjusted to an influx of asylum seekers and refugees over the past ten years...

www.lindsaydochertyphotographer.com

http://www.bigissuescotland.com/features/view/299


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Vulewya and her 4-year-old son TT, who live in block set aside for asylum seekers in Red Road. "I like Glasgow. I don't like this area." Agnes McDermott (76) and Agnes McDonald (84) - Sighthill neighbours who have seen lots of changes - and their homes threatened - over the decades. "We just want people to live here," says McDermott. Lamees Tayyem, a Palestinian who grew up in Syria, has made a home for her sons in Sighthill and gained refugee status in 2006. "I like Glasgow; I like Scotland. It suits my character." Leo and Elena Saidenough, Russian refugees living in the Kingsway flats and now studying in Glasgow. "There is a community that is fantastic and has done so much for us," says Leo. Jean Donnachie and Noreen Real - friends in the Kingsway estate who decided to help their asylum seeking neighbours escape the UKBA's dawn raids. "When they came it made the whole place vibrant again," says Noreen.