Eviction list in Glasgow includes 100 granted refuge in UK

A HUNDRED people granted refuge in the UK are among those facing mass evictions in Glasgow.

Home Office housing provider Serco has come under intense fire since announcing at the weekend that it would change the locks of some asylum seekers’ houses, sparking widespread panic.

Now the private outsourcing giant has said the number it intends to make homeless will hit 330 –rather than a previous estimate of 250 to 300 – and that 100 of these people will have leave to remain in the UK.

Serco’s chief executive Rupert Soames, however, yesterday said evictions would be limited to 10 a week and added that most of these would be single men.

In a letter to Glasgow City Council, he said: “We are giving financial and welfare support to vulnerable people for many months, and in some cases more than a year, after their asylum claims have been refused. This is currently costing Serco over a million pounds a year.”

His remarks did little to reassure council and third-sector groups.

Social worker insiders are increasingly concerned about a wave of panic sweeping Glasgow’s 5000-strong community of refugees at various stages in their legal bids to remain in the UK. Councillor Jennifer Layden said both Serco and the Home Office had “a responsibility to put this vulnerable group at ease”.

Two men yesterday began a hunger strike outside the Home Office in Glasgow. Local SNP, Labour and Green politicians have put aside party differences to express joint concern.

Tory councillors have written their own letter to the Home Secretary “making clear that it is crucial for people to be looked after properly”.

THE Home Office has come under intense pressure to stem a wave of panic running through Glasgow’s 5,000-strong refugee community.

A weekend announcement by private housing provider Serco that a rolling programme of lock changes would begin sparked widespread alarm, including among those unlikely to be affected by the move.

City leaders are privately concerned that “Chinese whispers” are whipping up bigger fears, including among already traumatised people with poor mental health.

Glasgow’s equalities and human rights convener, Jenny Layden, urged the Home Office and Serco to swiftly allay mounting concerns amongst the city’s asylum seekers.

She said: “The lock change announcement by the Home Office and Serco has caused widespread fear and alarm among asylum seekers in Glasgow.

“There is confusion and panic among the community – some of whom have a poor grasp of English and who may not be affected by Serco’s announcement. Both Serco and the Home Office have a responsibility to put this vulnerable group at ease. “

Relations between Serco’s HQ and the local authority and its third sector partners hit another low yesterday. Serco chief executive Rupert Soames repeated an assertion that the council had been warned of the lock-change policy.

Ms Layden said: “We dispute Serco’s claim that it has had any meaningful engagement with the city council or third sector partners about this programme.”

Her version of events was supported by third-sector sources contacted by The Herald. City insiders suggested local Serco staffers were co-operating on ways of supporting the most vulnerable clients they housed and confirmed there had been talks on this.

Mr Soames said 210 of those to be made homeless would be single men with the rest in family groups. He stressed that “overstayers” – those in Serco accommodation who are no longer funded by the Home Office – included those who had been granted formal refugee status and those who had not been.

Robina Qureshi of Positive Action in Housing – which has been putting up destitute asylum seekers with nowhere else to go – said Glasgow’s charity sector did not have the capacity to deal with hundreds of homeless people, even at a rate of

10 a week.

She said: “Rupert Soames is not making this easy. He is slowly dumping people onto the streets. He is making six households destitute this week and it will be 16 households on the streets in two weeks, and 26 in 3 weeks and 36 in four and so on.

“This is a humanitarian disaster.” Campaigners and charities yesterday announced they would be setting up law clinics with not-forprofit groups such as Govan Law Centre to help those affected fight their eviction.

Mr Soames, however, said people in the asylum system were exempt from a Scots law under which a court order is needed to evict a tenant.