Ethnic minority communities are being urged to use their vote to remain inside the European Union. Imran Azam reports.

The Karachi born chair of Scotland Stronger in Europe, Mona Siddiqui, has appealed for the country’s established ethnic groups to reject leaving the EU.

She said, “Ethnic minorities are British citizens and what happens in the EU affects them as it does everyone else. By voting to stay in, they reap all the economic and social benefits.

“They were once immigrants and should be careful that they don’t become part of the Leave campaign’s insidious rhetoric about other immigrants.”

However Tom Harris, the former Labour MP for Glasgow South, who is the director of Scottish Vote Leave, says a more balanced immigration policy can only be achieved when ties with Brussels are cut.

He said, "It is patently unfair that countries with strong historical and cultural ties with the UK - particular India and Pakistan - lose out because of unfair laws which mean that a qualified doctor from Lahore must go to the back of the queue behind a fruit picker from Poland.

“Only once we’re outside the EU can we have an even-handed immigration policy that gives precedence to those with family ties in Britain and which favours those with skills - wherever in the world you come from. Unless we vote Leave, the UK cannot legally have a fair immigration policy."

Earlier this month representatives from the Asian community spoke at a rally advocating a Remain position. Scottish Labour MSP Anas Sarwar (Pakistani, Muslim) was joined by the SNP’s Charandeep Singh (Indian, Sikh).

Other speakers on the night included Labour councillors Fariah Thomas (Muslim convert) and Soryia Siddique, who is of Pakistani origin and whose Southside Central ward includes Govanhill, where the established Pakistani community has an uneasy relationship with EU immigrants, especially Slovak and Romanian Roma.

Later this week AMINA Muslim Women’s Resource Centre and the Edinburgh and Lothians Racial Equality Council (ELREC) are organising events aimed at those who have yet to make up their minds.