protest against SERCO Mass Eviction of 330 war refugees and asylum seekers - GLASGOW

Supported by Positive Action in Housing, Church of Scotland leaders, Glasgow housing associations,refugees, human rights campaigners and more

PROTEST: SCOTLAND WELCOMES REFUGEES  STOP SERCO'S MASS EVICTION OF 330 WAR REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS 11.00 AM Saturday 4th August SERCO/Home Office building,  200 Brand Street Glasgow G51 1DW (close to Cessnock underground) Positive Action in Housing , Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, Church of Scotland and Stand Up to Racism have called this protest to encourage all anti-racist campaigners to oppose SERCO's mass eviction of 330 refugees and asylum seekers - war refugees - who have been forced into destitution by inhumane UK Home Office policies, practices and procedures. The UK Government can no longer turn its back on the global refugee crisis. Many refugees have fled war-torn countries such as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Following Tuesday's 500 strong demonstration at Buchanan Street, there will be a protest this Saturday at SERCO/Home Office's Brand Street building in 200 Brand Street, Glasgow. We have to send out a clear message that Scotland Welcomes Refugees and that this mass eviction must be overturned. This sets a dangerous Precedent. Symbolic burning of SERCO eviction letters to send a clear message that Scotland Welcomes Refugees. Please come along to the demonstration on Saturday. If you are facing eviction by SERCO please attend this protest. CONFIRMED SPEAKERS Chair: Angela McCormick – Stand Up to Racism Brief 3 minute contributions from the following: Alison Swinfen (IONA Community) Rev Dr Iain Whyte (Church of Scotland) Chris Stephens MP Paul Sweeney MP Richard Leonard MSP Robina Qureshi (Positive Action in Housing) Jim Strang (Parkhead Housing Association) Aamer Anwar (Human Rights Lawyer) Sheila Arthur (Asylum Seeker Housing Project) Sean Baillie (Living Rent) Mohammad Asif (Afghan HRF) Sabir Zazai (Scottish Refugee Council) Jock Morris (Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees) To be followed by symbolic burning of eviction notices. More info: https://bit.ly/2M0vI0l See also https://www.facebook.com/305725750313/posts/10160904501150314/   CALL TO ACTION Attend the protest 100 Glaswegians with spare rooms and big hearts needed - register here , for more info see www.paih.org/host-a-refugee Donate to the Emergency Appeal now: BTMydonate https://mydonate.bt.com/events/scotlandwelcomesrefugees/472426 Justgiving https://www.justgiving.com/paih Paypal https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/133777 or go to this link for other ways to give http://www.paih.org/donate/       Positive Action in Housing | Working together to Rebuild lives www.PositiveActionH.org Registered charity number SC027577 Company limited by guarantee 158867   For other ways to give, go to www.positiveactionh.org/donate or volunteer: www.paih.org/volunteer Do you have a spare room to help someone get back on their feet? Then register with www.roomforrefugees.com; In 2017, more than 5000 refugees drowned or went missing in the Mediterranean. Save refugee lives at sea by supporting our friends at Migrant Offshore Aid Station  www.moas.eu        (To remove yourself from further mailings click unsubscribe at the end of this email) Copyright © 2018 Positive Action in Housing, All rights reserved. Connected to our work Our mailing address is: Positive Action in Housing 98 W George Street Glasgow, G2 1PJ United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Scotland Welcomes Refugees - serco update, saturday protests and emergency appeal

Update  on SERCO evictions - Afghan hunger strike | protest and burning of eviction notes on Saturday |emergency appeal for donations and spare rooms

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Glasgow last night to protest against the eviction of up to 300 asylum seekers as the firm behind the move vowed to press ahead with the lock changes.   Input caption text here. Use the block's Settings tab to change the caption position and set other styles. Do you live in Glasgow? Can you offer a temporary spare room to someone from a refugee background?  Then sign up here Give a regular/single donation to our Emergency Crisis Appeal in aid of 300 asylum seeker families, children, men and women in Glasgow about to be made destitute by SERCO via Paypal , BTMyDonate or Justgiving  or Click here for other ways to give  Support Mirwaiz and Rahman - Afghan Hunger Strike Two Afghan refugees who have been waiting for years for a decision from the home Office and now being threatened with eviction by SERCO. Now they are getting tents and doing a Hunger strike outside the Home Office at Brand Street, Glasgow. More Demonstration at Brand Street, Glasgow G51 Come along and burn copies of the SERCO eviction letters Supported by Positive Action in Housing, Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, the Church of scotland and the Iona Community. Speakers include:  Glasgow Campaign to Welcome refugees, Aamer Anwar, Alison Swinfen (Iona Community), Rev Dr Iain Whyte (Church of Scotland), Jim Strang (Parkhead HA),  Mohammad Asif, Robina Qureshi, Sandra White MSP, Chris Stephens MP, Paul Sweeney MP Brand Street is where the Home Office is based alongside SERCO's head office. Let's show Serco and Rupert Soames what all of civic society thinks of their attempts to evict our refugee friends and neighbours (A volunteer firefighter will be on hand to ensure fire safety)  more     Karzan and his wife faced eviction for years while they pushed for the home office to resolve their case photo credit robert perry Dear Supporter, First of all thank you so much to everyone who responded to our Emergency appeal and have offered to host or give donations or write letters. Yesterday's protest at the steps next to the Donald Dewar Statue attracted hundreds of supporters, despite the driving rain. All of civic society has now condemned SERCO's decision to change locks and mass-evict up to 300 asylum seekers out of their homes in Glasgow. Positive Action in Housing, Glasgow City Council, Church of Scotland , Iona Community, politicians of all persuasions and the Scottish housing associations who LEASE properties to SERCO have come out to condemn his actions and warn him off of carrying out unlawful evictions on their properties, their patch. In this global refugee crisis, it doesn't sit well with the conscience to see a multimillionaire aristocrat and a corporate giant like SERCO abandon any duty of care and irresponsibly turn 300 war refugees and their children out on to the streets because they no longer turn a tidy profit. Glasgow has the biggest asylum population in the whole of the UK. SERCO houses 5,000 refugees here. Positive Action in Housing plays a lead crisis prevention role in the city.. In 2017-18, we assisted 1,400 destitute refugees to find resolution. We distributed almost £62K in crisis funds. We arranged 45,000 continuous nights of shelter in the homes of our volunteer "hosts" through the Room for Refugees Network. SERCO's action places added pressure on our crisis prevention work.  We we will find it impossible to cope with a mass eviction on top of the regular crisis destitution cases we must deal with. Regardless, we have today written to the City Council task force and the leader of the council Susan Aitken to offer access to our refugee hosting network which has over 7,000 hosts across Scotland and the rest of the UK. We currently shelter around 70 to 100 families and individuals at any one time. Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken is right to warn Home Secretary Sajid Javid of a "humanitarian disaster" in the city. She is also right to demand that Mr Javid instructs Serco to stop the evictions with immediate effect – his department is, after all, responsible for the welfare of asylum seekers. Many Glaswegians - including SNP and Labour politicians - are already talking about direct action, citing the likes of local heroine Mary Barbour. Serco plans to do a mass eviction and we are not prepared to stand by and let that happen. Two young SERCO residents facing eviction - Afghan refugees - have begun a hunger strike today outside Brand Street in protest at the length of time it has taken to get their paperwork. A further mass protest  is planned to take place on Saturday 4 August at 11 am at Brand Street, Glasgow G51 to burn SERCO's eviction notices in a symbolic act of defiance from the people of Glasgow and SERCO residents.  Brand Street, Glasgow is where the Home Office is based. SERCO's head office from which the eviction notices are issued is based directly behind the Home Office in the same complex. SERCO residents tel us they are terrified that if they refuse to sign paperwork they don't understand that SERCO will report them to the Home Office and this will jeopardise their right to be here. The press comments by SERCO that they are evicting people who have no right to be here, is a gross oversimplification of the complex and mercurial  issue of status. Today's refused asylum seeker could be granted leave to remain tomorrow. Only three weeks ago a Glasgow hunger strike family from Iraq who had waited 18 years for a decision were handed status within hours of the Home Office getting wind of the potential public embarrassment.  SERCO has no right to pass comment n the legal status of its residents. It is a landlord not an immigration officer. Many residents have developed severe mental health problems, are self harming or are close to the brink of suicide. There is no need for hunger strikes or protests if the Home Secretary Mr Javid takes the humane and ultimately more sensible approach by calling a halt to the evictions; a more compassionate solution can and must be found. If Rupert Soames will not avert this disaster , then Sajid Javid, the home Secretary can. Certainly Rupert Soames has picked the wrong city to conduct a mass eviction. And it could be his ultimate undoing. Rightly so. Finally, we have launched an emergency appeal in aid of 300 asylum seeker families and lone men and women, many fleeing war in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, who are to be made destitute in Glasgow by SERCO. Such an  action places added pressure on Positive Action in Housing's Emergency Relief Fund which provides crisis grants and arranges free shelter through our Room for Refugees Network. Please share this appeal and donate if you can and see the figures below on the crisis support we are currently providing. To keep up to date with updates, please like us on facebook and follow us on Twitter at @positiveactionh.  Thank you for your support thus far. With best wishes and kind regards, Robina Qureshi Positive Action in Housing | Working together to Rebuild lives www.PositiveActionH.org Registered charity number SC027577 Company limited by guarantee 158867 To offer a temporary spare room, register here  Donate to our Emergency Crisis Appeal via Paypal , BTMyDonate, Justgiving  or Click here for other ways to give  Support Mirwaiz and Rahman - Afghan Hunger Strike More Mass Demonstration at Brand Street, Glasgow G51  Hear some inspiring speakers and help burn copies of the eviction notices Supported by Positive Action in Housing, Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, the Church of Scotland and the Iona Community  https://www.facebook.com/events/1934931253238740/ More info  Glasgow has the highest asylum seeking population in the UK as a result of the UK government's forced dispersal policy since 2000. Anyone facing destitution can be referred to Room for Refugees for temporary free shelter with our hosts by calling 01413532220 or their caseworker can make a formal referral, for more info see roomforrefugees.com. The refugee crisis has not gone away. Please support our crisis prevention work by giving a regular donation here www.positiveactionh.org/donate News articles here (To remove yourself from our mailings just click unsubscribe at the end of this email)   Copyright © 2018 Positive Action in Housing, All rights reserved. Connected to our work Our mailing address is: Positive Action in Housing 98 W George Street Glasgow, G2 1PJ United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Emergency Crisis Appeal plus Statement on Serco’s plans to evict 300 asylum seekers onto the streets of Glasgow

Sorry here is the correct link for people to offer a spare room plus details of protest tomorrow

Karzan and his wife faced eviction for years while they pushed for the home office to resolve their case photo credit robert perry Nahla and her little girls - faced eviction from SERCO flat in Glasgow until Positive Action in Housing put her in touch with  solicitors who could fight for their housign rights and their right to remain - CREDIT ROBERT PERRY offer a spare room in Glasgow Give a donation online now or give in other ways (e.g. paypal or justgiving or send a cheque) Protest: tomorrow on the steps of buchanan galleries next to Donald dewar Aat 6 pm Tuesday Dear Supporter, I have today condemned plans by Rupert Soames' Serco group, a private landlord subcontracted by the Home Office, to evict 300 asylum seeker families and lone men and women, many of whom are fleeing war or persecution in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, onto the streets of Glasgow. We are appalled that Serco would carry out these actions against vulnerable refugees who endure interminable Home Office delays with their cases. I have urged Serco's CEO, Rupert Soames, to desist from putting people onto the streets. I would also urge all social housing landlords who are leasing flats to Serco to challenge the UK Government's hostile environment by preventing any evictions without court orders or coercion of vulnerable people to leave by SERCO turning up at people's doors or carrying out lock changes in social housing stock leased to SERCO. At this time, we we are trying to establish – and I have written to Rupert Soames in the early hours but still no answer -  is whether in one week, refused asylum seekers will face legal proceedings through the courts or whether Serco plans to change locks systematically of all 300 without a court order. If it is the latter then we have a major problem, it would be helpful if Glasgow housing associations who have leased properties to Serco assert with their contact in SERCO that no illegal evictions can take place in social housing properties, i.e. without sheriff court orders, given the draconian measures that are being proposed. We have been told by several Serco residents that they have considered suicide. It is a chilling reminder of the triple suicide of an asylum seeking couple and their son in Glasgow's Red Road flats in 2010, on the day they were told they had to get out of their Home Office flat. To avoid lock changes, some Serco residents have stopped going to college or leaving their flats to buy milk or bread. We are talking about families, children, the elderly, the disabled, lone women and men.    This is the hostile environment on Scottish soil, war refugees, many from Syria, Iraq, Eritrea, and Afghanistan, endure systematic cruelty at the hands of an asylum system that fast tracks them into "refused" asylum status, then leaves them destitute. It needs to be remembered that many of the asylum seekers that Serco intends to evict are pursuing their legal cases and have their decisions overturned on appeal. Destitution is a cheap way for the UK government not to support the vulnerable in our society, and create an underclass of exploited, invisible human beings with no purpose or hope. There are several questions that must be asked: To Rupert Soames, CEO of Serco: Our question about his "Move On "plan is "Where are people meant to move onto?    Evictions without court orders are illegal under Scots law. Is Serco going to pursue due legal process i.e. a court order to evict or will Serco residents be locked out or coerced into leaving without court orders over the coming weeks. SERCO has previously stated they would pursue court orders which gives people time to get their cases dealt with. Are they now going back on their word? (As Mike dailly of Govan law centre said: "While Serco are considering s.23 of 1984 Act, asylum seekers have occupancy agreements and s.22(5) should apply"). To Kevin Stewart MSP, the Scottish housing minister: What is his position in this matter? Serco is a major landlord, with 5,000 residents in its accommodation. Are vulnerable asylum seekers to be evicted onto the streets of Glasgow, without a court order?  Eviction without a court order is against Scots law as housing is a devolved matter. Does this hold true for asylum seekers or can a major landlord in Glasgow evict without court order? Crucially, Will Police Scotland protect asylum seekers if they are forced out of their homes by Serco staff without a court order? Or will Police Scotland be on the side of Serco if they attempt to evict without a court order? If so, what does an eviction without court order look like? If people are dragged out physically by Serco Staff, is that assault or eviction? Will Police Scotland help asylum seekers being evicted without a court order, or will they stand by and let Serco staff drag people out physically? These are legitimate questions that need answering Finally, we have launched an emergency appeal in aid of 300 asylum seeker families and lone men and women, many fleeing war in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, who are to be made destitute in Glasgow by SERCO. Such an  action places added pressure on Positive Action in Housing's Emergency Relief Fund which provides crisis grants and arranges free shelter through our Room for Refugees Network. Genuine Refugees endure systematic cruelty at the hands of an asylum system that fast tracks them into "refused" asylum status, then leaves them destitute. Please donate if you can and see the figures below on the crisis support we are currently providing. Kind regards Robina Qureshi Director More info  Glasgow has the highest asylum population in the UK as a result of the UK's forced dispersal policy. SERCO houses 5,000 asylum seekers in Glasgow alone, in SERCO eviction letters, Positive Action in Housing is named as the first "go to" organisations for people being made destitute. Many of the asylum seekers whom Serco intends to evict are pursuing their legal cases and will have their decisions overturned on appeal. They are not failed asylum seekers, the majority are war refugees whose cases have been dragged out by the Home Office. Consider the case of the Glasgow Hunger strike family, the kamil's, who were handed leave to remain within hours of announcing a hunger strike bewcause the home office feared embarrassing headlines about their 18 year wait for a decision on their case. In 2017-18, Positive Action in Housing provided emergency crisis support and shelter to 1,400 asylum seeking families and individuals. At any one time we provide shelter through Room for Refugees to 70-100 families or individuals each night in the homes of volunteer "hosts".We arranged 45,000 continuous nights of shelter in the homes of volunteers through our room for refugees Network. We distributed £62K of crisis grants to those at risk. Glasgow has the highest asylum seeking population in the UK as a result of the UK government's forced dispersal policy since 2000. Anyone facing destitution can be referred to Room for Refugees for temporary free shelter with our hosts by calling 01413532220 or their caseworker can make a formal referral, for more info see roomforrefugees.com. DONATIONS NEEDED TO SUPPORT THOSE BEING EVICTED: we have launched an emergency appeal in aid of the 300 asylum seeker families and lone men and women, many fleeing war in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, who are to be made destitute in Glasgow by SERCO, a private landlord subcontracted by the Home Office. Such an  action places added pressure on Positive Action in Housing's Emergency Relief Fund which provides crisis grants and arranges free shelter through our Room for Refugees Network. Genuine Refugees endure systematic cruelty at the hands of an asylum system that fast tracks them into "refused" asylum status, then leaves them destitute. Glasgow ROOMS NEEDED - To address this current crisis, we desperately need more volunteers to come forward to offer a spare room in their home, or an empty property, please register your offer here The refugee crisis has not gone away. Please support our crisis prevention work by giving a regular donation here www.positiveactionh.org/donate NEWS ARTICLES,  Daily Record Article Scotsman article Sunday Herald article Our statement Facebook post with updates   Positive Action in Housing | Working together to Rebuild lives www.PositiveActionH.org Registered charity number SC027577 Company limited by guarantee 158867   For other ways to give, go to www.positiveactionh.org/donate or volunteer: www.paih.org/volunteer Do you have a spare room to help someone get back on their feet? Then register with www.roomforrefugees.com; In 2017, more than 5000 refugees drowned or went missing in the Mediterranean. Save refugee lives at sea by supporting our friends at Migrant Offshore Aid Station  www.moas.eu    (To remove yourself from our mailings please click unsubscribe at the end of this email)   Copyright © 2018 Positive Action in Housing, All rights reserved. Connected to our work Our mailing address is: Positive Action in Housing 98 W George Street Glasgow, G2 1PJ United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.