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This episode of Our Story is about two communities; the Kosovar community who came to Scotland seeking sanctuary from armed conflict twenty years ago this year, and the community who welcomed them.

It is estimated that between 1.2 to 1.4 million Kosovo Albanians were displaced and over thirteen thousand people were killed during the war in Kosovo. In May 1999, Scotland mounted its biggest refugee programme to date, following an agreement between the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and European governments to provide temporary protection and shelter to Kosovars who had fled ethnic cleansing.

On Sunday 9th May ’99 just before 2pm, the first of two flights that day carrying the most vulnerable refugees arrived into Prestwick airport. These first flights carried mainly women and children and included a 10-week-old baby and a 99-year-old woman. Few passengers had little more than the clothes they were standing up in.
Several councils and churches came together to provide accommodation and support services for the new community. The notorious Red Road flats in the Springburn area of Glasgow were made available to accommodate the refugees, whilst others were housed in North Berwick and Paisley. Huge media interest was garnered and over the next few months, nearly 400 refugees from Kosovo would make Scotland their home.

In later years as more refugees arrived, for many the warm welcome turned to hostility. Whilst some Kosovar refugees returned home, the others who stayed were often subjected to dawn raids and the complexities of a rigid immigration system. As a new generation of Scottish Kosovars come of age twenty years on, Mark Stephen explores the impact the evacuation to Scotland has had on the Kosovar community and how it has shaped Scotland today.