Sighthill killing leads to big fall in racist attacks

The area of Glasgow where a Turkish asylum-seeker was stabbed to death a year ago has seen a 56 per cent fall in reported racist incidents.

The murder of Firsat Dag last August as he made his way from the city centre to his flat in a tower block in Sighthill prompted a national outcry. Sighthill, a bleak landscape of tower blocks, deprivation and unemployment, was vilified as a hotbed of racism.

But since then the estate in east Glasgow, where about 1,500 of the city's 6,000 asylum-seekers live, has become a model of racial harmony, figures released by Strathclyde Police confirmed.

Scott Burrell, 26, from Balornock – an estate outside Sighthill – was jailed for life in December for the murder. The shock of the killing led asylum-seekers and residents to march on the city council to demand improved conditions.

"The murder of Firsat Dag was not racist," Billy Singh, a community activist with Sighthill Community One Stop Shop, said. "Firsat lived in Sighthill but his killer didn't, and the murder didn't take place on the estate, but that didn't stop Sighthill being portrayed as some kind of breeding ground for neo-Nazis.

"If anything good can come out of somebody's death, then Firsat Dag did not die in vain. His murder has galvanised the community, both local people and refugees, into one voice fighting for the same social improvements."

Margaret Thomson, who has lived on the estate for more than 30 years, said regarding the changes: "We've had local authorities from all over the UK coming to us to see how it's done. The trouble was local people didn't know anything about the incomers and now we do. We have taken the trouble to speak to them, learn of their experiences and now most people realise that we are all in the same boat.

"There are no longer local people and asylum-seekers, just residents of Sighthill, and we look after our own – colour or ethnic origin doesn't matter."

Sighthill's 7,500 residents live in one of the poorest areas in Britain, which has the second worst health record in the UK and the highest unemployment figures in Scotland. When Glasgow City Council saw the chance to have some of the estate's derelict properties renovated at government expense by shipping in 1,500 asylum-seekers, it ignited a wave of resentment.

For years local residents had fought in vain to have their homes improved. As they watched flats being rapidly repaired for people they knew nothing about, racial tensions and violence increased.