GLC defend asylum seekers threatened with eviction in Glasgow

Govan Law Centre Media Release

31 July 2018. For immediate release 
Govan Law Centre to protect up to 300 Asylum seekers threatened with eviction in Glasgow

Govan Law Centre is working with MPs, Glasgow City Council, and charities to protect asylum seekers who are being threatened with eviction. 

Serco, a landlord in Glasgow who have a Home Office contract to house asylum seekers, are proposing to raise legal proceedings to summarily evict people who are asylum seekers in Glasgow.  

GLC are one of the welfare law and housing specialists in Glasgow and will do everything it can to defend the residents.  

GLC s working with MPs, Glasgow City Council, and a number of third sector agencies and charities to identify affected asylum seekers with a view to raising legal proceedings to prevent Serco from summarily evicting people who are asylum seekers in Glasgow. We will also explore the potential for individual just satisfaction claims for unlawful eviction under section 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 against Serco/Home Office. 

Govan Law Centre’s Principal Solicitor and Solicitor Advocate Mike Dailly said:  “These are very vulnerable families living in our city and they deserve full legal protection to ensure that dues process is being followed. We have a number of our senior lawyers looking at this right now. 

“We are convinced that Serco are proposing to act unlawfully. And we will be taking cases before the Scottish courts. This is a complex area of law and its very unlikely vulnerable people can just be summarily evicted in the way Serco propose.

“Scots common law has long since prohibited eviction without due process of law against residential occupiers. In Scotland, it is generally necessary to obtain a decree for ejection from the court as opposed to taking the law into you own hands – known as summary eviction or eviction brevi manu – which is generally a criminal offence and a civil wrong.”

Serco have announced their intention to evict asylum seekers, and their families, in Glasgow by giving a brief period of written notice that they will change the locks to a person’s home.  

Govan Law Centre (GLC) believe this proposed course of action appears to be unlawful, and is fraught with a number of significant legal problems which are summarised as follows.

Notes:
GLC Contact
Mike Daily 07507 782930
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