Yesterday the firm that manages asylum accommodation in Glasgow confirmed that it will not use lock changes (summary evictions) as a way of repossessing flats from people in Glasgow.

Instead, Mears Group said that they would always seek court orders before attempting to move people out of their accommodation.

Scottish Refugee Council Chief Exec Sabir Zazai said:

“Mears’s commitment  that they will never carry out lock-change evictions will be reassuring for those who live with this fear hanging over them every day. There should be no summary evictions in asylum accommodation in Glasgow or anywhere else in the UK, be that done by a forced lock change or otherwise.

“Courts must always have oversight over a decision whether someone can be made street homeless or not.”

At Scottish Refugee Council we and our colleagues in the homelessness and refugee sectors have been resisting and mounting legal challenges against lock change summary evictions for some time. We will now hold Mears to their  commitment to avoid lock change evictions.

Pauline D
Author: Pauline D