'We must fight Tory decision to force people into homelessness'

Nowhere has that been more evident than in Glasgow. For more than 20 years our communities have hosted many thousands of asylum seekers and refugees: Congolese, Tamil, Kurdish, Eritrean, Afghan, Iranian, Syrian, Ukrainian and many more.

Many have stayed and are Glaswegian now, becoming our friends, neighbours and colleagues. I’m very proud that two of my SNP colleagues on the council come from refugee communities, councillors Abdul Bostani and Roza Salih.

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It’s in no small part down to the contribution of those refugee communities that Glasgow is the vibrant, diverse and truly global city that we know today.

Although we have become a beacon of integration we’ve done so in spite of the blatantly cruel policies of successive Westminster governments, Labour as well as Tory. The latest planned assault on the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees might be their worst yet.

Due to UK Government incompetence, many have waited years for their asylum claims to be processed.

Now, to clear the huge backlog it has allowed to build up, the Home Office plans to mass process thousands of claims across the UK, including around 2500 in Glasgow alone over the coming weeks.

Of course, we want people to get positive decisions but appallingly the Tories intend to make those people homeless by throwing them out of their asylum accommodation en masse.

The city council will then have to find places to live for potentially thousands of people in the space of weeks.

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Even worse, many will find their asylum applications refused, and because we are prevented by a law put in place by Tony Blair’s Labour government from providing them with any support whatsoever, they could be forced into destitution and onto the streets.

This is an appalling and entirely unnecessary way to treat people. The UK Government could allow them to remain in their accommodation until a home is sourced for them.

That is what we want them to do and is certainly what we would do if we were in control of asylum accommodation in the city.

But the Tories privatised asylum accommodation and now, for electoral purposes, Suella Braverman wants to clear asylum seekers from the hotels in the south of England where Tory voters are and dump them in Glasgow and across the UK, leaving councils to pick up the pieces of shattered and traumatised lives without a single extra penny of help.

And because Glasgow is the biggest asylum authority in the UK by some distance, we’ll be hit harder than anywhere else.

Glasgow’s history shows that its more than possible to support the integration of asylum seekers into their new communities. But the Tories don’t want that. For them asylum seekers are just weapons in their right-wing culture war.

They don’t care about the damage they’ll cause to people’s lives or to public services. But Glaswegians care and know that its utterly unacceptable to force people into homelessness.

It is unconscionable to deliberately create a humanitarian crisis. It must be stopped.

The SNP city administration will do all we can to fight this. And with disaster and destitution looming for so many we urge Glaswegians, especially those with a voice and influence, to stand with us.