Refugees stage hunger strike in eviction row
● MP says ‘direct action’ required as men face losing their homes
Refugees facing eviction from their homes began a hunger strike outside a Home Office base in Glasgow yesterday.
The two Afghan men, who have had their asylum claims rejected, said they would protest for “as long as they physically could”.
Two refugees began a hunger strike outside the Home Office base in Glasgow yesterday after being placed at risk of eviction from their homes in the city.
Rahman Shah, 32, and Mirwais Ahmadzai, 27, said they would remain outside the office complex in Brand Street for “as long as they physically could”.
Both men are Afghans who claim to have fled the ongoing war in their homeland, only to see their asylum claims rejected after arriving in the UK.
Mr Shah is among those to have received a letter from Serco ordering him to vacate his temporary accommodation in Glasgow or face eviction.
The private firm last week began issuing seven-day notices to the first of 300 cases in Glasgow informing them their locks are to be changed.
The company says it has been providing accommodation at its own expense after the Home Office withdrew funding for those refused leave to remain in the UK.
Serco, which is currently accommodating 5,000 asylum seekers in Glasgow on behalf of the Home Office, said it had been working on the eviction process with the city council for the past four months.
Mr Shah said he fled an refugee camp in Pakistan after authorities there told him to return to Afghanistan.
He arrived in the UK last year, and claims the UK Border
Force has since informed him he should claim residency in Pakistan.
Mr Ahmadzai arrived in Scotland aged 15 and has spent 12 years living at various temporary addresses. His MP, Labour’s Paul Sweeney, has raised his case with the Home Office.
Mohammad Asif, chairman of the Scottish Afghan Society, said he was working with both men to resolve their issues.
“The issue is as much with the Home Office as it is with Serco,” he told The Scotsman.
“These men have fled a wartorn country and yet the UK government is asking them to return.
“The Foreign Office advises British nationals not to travel to Kabul, yet this is where they want Afghans to return to.”
Mr Sweeney, the Labour MP for Glasgow North East, said “direct action” was necessary because the proposal to evict residents had been announced during the parliamentary recess – meaning the normal political channels could not be relied on.
The Home Office said it was not “seeking removal” of anyone appealing their decision on leave to remain, but Mr Sweeney said a constituent who was appealing had been served with an eviction notice.
The Home Office said it would not comment on individual cases, but a spokeswoman said: “While an asylum claim or an appeal is outstanding, we would not be seeking removal.”