CAMPAIGNERS were staging a protest today against the detention of a failed asylum seeker and her young son.

CAMPAIGNERS were staging a protest today against the detention of a failed asylum seeker and her young son.

Fatou Felicite Gaye, 38, and four-year-old Arouna are being held at Dungavel detention centre in South Lanarkshire following an early-morning raid at a property in Sighthill, Glasgow, yesterday.

Such detentions have drawn widespread criticism in the past and last night campaign groups and politicians reacted furiously.

Campaigners described the manner in which the family, from the Ivory Coast, were detained as "heavy-handed".

And an MSP hit out at the fact that a young child was being held in Dungavel, branding the move "an absolute disgrace".

The UK Border Agency insisted all removals were undertaken with "extreme care".

The Unity Centre, a Glasgow-based asylum seeker support group, also pointed out that the raid came days after a pilot project was announced in the city to encourage failed asylum seekers to return home voluntarily.

Unity will hold a demonstration outside the Home Office facility in Glasgow today in protest at the detention.

The campaign group said the pair are due to be deported on Monday.

It is understood Ms Gaye has had a string of appeals to stay in the UK rejected.

Unity said in a statement: "The dawn raid, the first to be carried out in Glasgow for almost a year, was carried out only days after the Home Office announced the start of a pilot project designed to prevent the need to detain asylum-seeking families at all."

SNP MSP Christina McKelvie, whose constituency covers Dungavel, branded the detention of a child at the centre "an absolute disgrace".

She said: "This is a clear and disgraceful breach of Jim Murphy's promise to end the detention of children and breaks the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child."

It is understood officials from the agency arrived at the property where Ms Gaye was staying at around 6.45am yesterday.

She is believed to have been informed by letter before the raid.

It is understood that Ms Gaye had an asylum claim rejected in 2005 and has since had five more appeals refused.