AN MSP has written to Westminster to protest against the removal of an asylum seeker and her four-year-old son who were targeted in a dawn raid at their Glasgow home earlier this month.

Christina McKelvie, SNP member for Central Scotland, accused Home Secretary Jacqui Smith of acting inhumanely in her determination to send Fatou Felicité Gaye, and son Arouna, to the Ivory Coast.

Arouna was born in the UK and has never been to Africa, Ms McKelvie added.

The pair were transferred to the Dungavel detention centre, from where they are expected to be sent overseas.

Ms Gaye, 38, failed in her bid for asylum in 2005 and has since had five appeals rejected by UK courts.

A UK Border Agency spokesman said the department never commented on individual cases, but stressed that forced removal was avoided wherever possible.