WHILE debate continues over UK immigration policy and the different approaches to asylum favoured by Westminster and Holyrood, a more pressing question must be addressed, according to Sally Daghlian of the Scottish Refugee Council (SRC).

"We are getting to the point where we have to ask whether asylum in Europe is becoming a theoretical right rather than a practical one," she says.

Daghlian, the SRC's chief executive, is one of the keynote speakers at a major conference on asylum and refugee policy taking place in Glasgow next week.

Seeking Asylum: A Scottish Perspective will take place in the city's Royal Concert Hall next Monday. It will look at recent developments in asylum policy and the extent to which Scottish attitudes can differ, and indeed have done so, given that Westminster retains control over immigration issues.

Daghlian will tell the conference that unless the UK and other European governments are committed to their obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention, other policy issues will remain secondary.

"The big and pressing question is how you preserve the protection of refugees, and people's ability to access the UK and seek asylum here, in a context which is about tightening borders and reducing numbers," she says.

"While things such as preserving security are legitimate issues for government to address, there is a danger that we prevent refugees from being able to seek protection in our country."

"Governments have the right to set their own immigration policies, but we would always argue that within that, we have to make sure our borders have doors in them for refugees."

The event organisers, Holyrood Conferences, point out that the previous Scottish Executive was praised by the Institute of Public Policy Research for taking a more positive approach to refugees. They also credit former first minister Jack McConnell with influencing Home Office policy over the detention and removal of children.

A number of speakers will discuss Scotland's experience, particularly in Glasgow, where representatives from Strathclyde Police and Glasgow City Council will examine the impact of the dispersal of asylum seekers into the city's communities, and some of the innovations that have been successful.

The programme includes some outspoken critics of UK government policy, including Scotland's Commissioner for Children Kathleen Marshall, who has previously described the detention of the children of asylum seekers as "inhumane", and Baroness Vivien Stern, who was a member of the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR).

In March, the JCHR released a report on the treatment of asylum seekers which said the government's approach was potentially "inhuman and degrading" in the context of human rights laws.

Baroness Stern will describe the shock felt by many members of the joint committee, particularly when they visited a centre detaining female asylum seekers and their children at Yarl's Wood, in the course of their inquiry.

"Most people hadn't specialised in asylum before. When we did, we were all deeply shocked, without exception," she says.

"At Yarl's Wood we saw lots and lots of women and the reasons for their detention were not at all clear. We saw children running up and down corridors trying to play and be normal. There was a lack of legal representation and health care - it was not at all a happy day."

She says there is already a greater awareness in Scotland of many of the issues their report addressed than there is in England, as well as more activism on behalf of asylum seekers - citing rallies to prevent dawn deportation raids and the "Glasgow Girls" schoolgirl support organisation.

"There is tremendous scope for Scotland to look at the issue through its own eyes, and see something different," she adds.

Daghlian, too, is optimistic about Scotland's chances of influencing Home Office policy. "The previous administration had a positive approach and as a result we've been able to do things in Scotland that are the envy of our neighbours," she says. These include the previous Executive's refugee integration action plan. Meanwhile, the UK government has acted on problems in the way its agencies made decisions on cases, she says.

However, organisations such as SRC are still deeply unhappy about elements of UK policy, especially relating to the deportation of failed asylum seekers to insecure countries, and the fact that many choose to become destitute rather than be returned.

"At the moment the UK government sees a decline in the number of people seeking asylum as evidence that its policies on asylum are successful," Daghlian says.

"The success of an asylum policy should be judged on whether those people who need protection are granted it, not on how many people we prevent from getting to the UK.

"The Home Office still has no childcare for women who are being interviewed about their asylum claims, which may include - for example - being raped.

"Having to talk about that with anybody is incredibly difficult, but having to talk about sexual violence you have suffered, in front of your children, is unacceptable and unbelievable."

Meanwhile, fears over government attempts to return failed asylum seekers to Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe among other countries were underlined, in the eyes of campaigners, by the recent death of rejected Iraqi asylum seeker Solyman Rashed in a car bomb.

The 28-year-old was killed in Kirkuk last month just two weeks after being returned to Iraq, campaigners say. He had spent almost 10 months in Scotland's Dungavel detention centre.

People like Rashed are pressured to return to their home countries, despite fears for their safety, Daghlian says. "If people are refused asylum the only way they can access support is a Section 4 payment, but to get that you have to sign up for voluntary return. They are not going to sign up to be returned somewhere they think is unsafe."

As a result the SRC and other agencies regularly see former asylum seekers who are living in appalling conditions on the margins of society, she said. "The government is using destitution as a way to try to achieve its policy objectives. These people need to be given some form of humanitarian status and allowed to work."

Those who wish to see tougher restrictions on immigration often argue that making conditions too comfortable for those who are rejected simply encourages more, possibly spurious, asylum claims.

Daghlian rejects this on two levels. Firstly there is no evidence that levels of welfare support available influence the country a claimant ends up in, she says. Secondly, forcing people into destitution isn't working either. "While some people may choose to return because of these rules, overall there is no evidence whatsoever that starving people is a way of changing their behaviour," she says.

Other speakers at next Monday's event will include John Watson, programme director for Amnesty International in Scotland. He, too, will reject the use of destitution as a tool of government policy'.

Watson says: "In November 2006, Amnesty International launched its Down and Out campaign highlighting that UK government policy on refused asylum seekers forces many of them into abject poverty in an attempt to drive them out of the country.

"There are thousands of refused asylum seekers in the UK, living a hand to mouth existence, reliant on charity and not permitted to work. Many cannot return to their country of origin for reasons beyond their control and we believe they should not be penalised for this."

The ongoing Independent Asylum Commission is currently investigating the opinions of a wide range of people with an interest in asylum policy and it will be represented at the event.

Views from the conference will be fed into the commission's report, which is due in 2008.

Daghlian believes that the different level of engagement with the issues faced by asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland is a reason for optimism. SRC will continue to raise public awareness of the aspects of current policy that it views as unjust, she says. "If there is enough public pressure, we can bring about change.

"We are working with a range of church groups and other organisations to send the message out we don't think this is acceptable. Please don't do it in our name'."