Roza Salih has launched her campaign to become the first refugee elected to the Scottish Parliament. 

The Kurdish refugee was part of the 'Glasgow Girls' who ran a successful campaign against the detention and planned deportation of Agnesa Murselaj. 

She has now been selected to stand for The SNP after long-serving MSP Gil Paterson revealed she would not be seeking re-election.

The group, from Drumchapel High campaigned against dawn raids by the UK Border Agency and lobbied the Scottish Government on the issue of unlawful child detention.

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Explaining her decision to stand for election, Salih told our pro-independence sister paper The National: “I travelled over three thousand miles from Kurdistan to Scotland and I was blown away by how quickly and full-heartedly Scotland and its people welcomed me.

“I would now like to make the slightly shorter journey, just along the road from where I grew up in Drumchapel to Clydebank and Milngavie, where I wish to repay the love and opportunities that Scotland has given me by serving the people of Clydebank and Milngavie in our national parliament.”

Salih would be one of the first women from an ethnic minority background to be elected to the Scottish Parliament.