A legal bid will be launched today to stop one of the first of planned mass evictions of Glasgow asylum seekers.
Lawyers acting for a single man from the city’s south side will seek an interdict at the Court of Session. They argue that a move to make him homeless breaches Scots law.
The tenant is one of six other lone males earmarked as the first of 330 people whose locks are to be changed by Serco, a private firm housing 5000 people on behalf of the UK Home Office.
Serco says that asylum housing is exempt from Scots laws providing a whole series of rights to tenants.
Chris Stephens, the tenant’s MP, said: “I believe Serco’s actions are unfair and inhumane and must be tested in court.”
The action comes after groups working with refugees met with local not-for-profit law centres on Wednesday to discuss ways to stop or slow down th evictions.
Mike Dailly, Solicitor Advocate at Govan Law Centre, will lead the first case.
He told The Herald said: “I have drafted a summons in the Court of Session against Serco Group plc and the Secretary of State for the Home Department seeking declarator and interdict on behalf of a Glasgow asylum seeker to prevent her eviction and destitution.
“On Friday we will seek interim interdict to prevent our client’s eviction without due process of Scots law.
“Govan Law Centre is meeting with other asylum seekers tomorrow who are threaten with DIY evictions by Serco which we believe to be unlawful.”
Serco Chief Executive Rupert Soames in a letter to local authorities on Wednesday said he believed the evictions were lawful. However, he said that Serco would limit forced removals to 10 a week as opposition in Glasgow to the move stiffened.
The firm has stressed that it is losing £1m a year putting up people no longer funded by the Home Office, either because their have been granted refugee status or because they have been rejected.
The private outsourcing giant has said that the number it intends to make homeless will reach 330 and that 100 of these people will have leave to remain in the UK. Glasgow City Council has claimed such a move would prove a humanitarian crisis for the city, which is not allowed to provide housing to former asylum seekers under normal circumstances.
The British Association of Social Workers, in a letter today’s Herald, warned its members and other council staff would “be facing a potentially untenable and unworkable situation”.
It added: “It is unacceptable that professionals may not be able to respond according to their code of ethics and practice.
The Scottish Human Rights Commission’s Judith Robertson said: “The UK Government has an obligation to ensure rights are upheld not only in law and policy, but through relevant procurement and contractual arrangements.
“Everyone has a right to a private and family life, to be free from inhuman or degrading treatment and, in terms of international law, a right to adequate housing. “Locking people out of their homes, leaving them destitute and vulnerable on our streets, is a clear violation of these human rights responsibilities.”
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