Scottish ‘testing ground’ for refugees
THE threatened eviction of asylum seekers in Glasgow is being used by the Tories to test the water for dealing with refugees elsewhere in the UK, campaigners claim.
Accommodation providers Serco this month said they would evict tenants in Glasgow who had exhausted the asylum process.
The eviction plan has been halted by a legal challenge but may still go ahead. Campaigners say the move is the opening salvo of a Tory bid to ramp up austerity.
Robina Qureshi, of Positive Action in Housing, said: “They are using Scotland as a testing ground to see how far they can push things.
“Asylum seekers are the guinea pigs to see what they can get away with. Glasgow is the new frontline of the hostile environment.
“What happens here affects the rest of the country.
“It is a fight between Scots law – which states that it is unlawful to evict without a court order – and Westminster’s reserved powers on asylum.”
Serco chief Rupert Soames said: “Nobody understands better than us just how much trauma many of those who seek asylum and protection in our country have suffered.
“But we need to find practical solutions to a very serious, sensitive and difficult issue of how to manage those people who, at the end of the adjudication process, have not been granted the right to remain in this country and need to move on.”