Violence flares on Scottish estate

GLASGOW, Scotland -- An Iranian asylum-seeker has been stabbed outside his home on a Scottish inner city estate where another refugee was killed at the weekend.

The 22-year old, who has yet to be named, was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary after the attack in the Sighthill district of the city. He was released early on Wednesday morning.

The attack follows the killing of Turkish Kurd refugee Firsat Dag in Sighthill on Sunday.

A spokesman for Strathclyde police called the attack on the Iranian "unprovoked" and told the Press Association: "This man was walking to his home alone when he was subject to this attack."

The spokesman said police were looking for a number of people, all of them white, in connection with the incident and said there would continue to be a heavy police presence on the estate.

"We have had quite a substantial presence in Sighthill for some time, even before Sunday's tragic killing," he told the news agency.

Julia Allan, manager of the Scottish Refugee Council, said there had been 70 racist attacks, seven serious, across Glasgow since January.

She told PA the continuing violence in the city was unsurprising as little was being done to ease tensions and explain why the refugees had come to the UK, said the Press Association.

Widespread protests

"A number of asylum-seekers have been introduced to Glasgow with very little planning and this is not eased when you are housing vulnerable people in a city with economic problems," she told BBC radio Scotland.

"People need to be educated about the countries people are coming from, why they are seeking refuge and what the laws are in this country in looking after them," Allan added.

The attack on the Iranian man comes as discussions continue over the housing of asylum-seekers on the estate.

Wednesday's meeting between Deputy Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm and the Asylum Seekers' Consortium was arranged before the weekend killing, which heightened racial tensions in the city and provoked widespread protests in the area.

Residents have called for a rethink of the city council's settlement policy, which has seen thousands of asylum-seekers housed in one of the most deprived areas of the country.

As racial tension threatens to boil over, Scottish officials have decided no more asylum-seekers will be housed in the Sighthill area, said Reuters news agency.

Scotland Office Minister George Foulkes urged other local authorities to help Glasgow "shoulder the responsibility."

The news agency also said community leaders and police in Hull, in the north-east of England, were also appealing for calm after a Kurdish asylum-seeker had his throat slashed.

The man was attacked by a gang of up to 20 white youths in the city in what police were treating as a racially motivated incident.