GLASWEGIANS vowed to “lock Serco out of our city” today as the scandal-ridden outsourcing giant pressed on with evicting 300 refugees.

The company, which holds the contract for housing asylum-seekers in Glasgow, wants to evict those who have been denied leave to remain in Britain by the Home Office.

.@Living_Rent heading to take symbolic action with padlocks against Serco pic.twitter.com/XHK2VmyubK

— CommonSpace (@TheCommonSpace) June 27, 2019

Activists organised by tenants’ union Living Rent served an “eviction notice” at the company’s Glasgow HQ today, saying the company had 21 days — the same notice period given to evicted refugees — to re-sign its contracts.

Living Rent organiser George Lavery said: “We want to demonstrate to Serco that Glasgow is a city which won’t be standing for what they propose.

“We will obstruct their plans by all means, and lock them out of the city before they lock people out of their homes.”

Serco originally announced the evictions last summer but put the plan on hold after uproar in Scotland’s largest city.

Ahead of a Commons debate on the issue today Glasgow South West MP Chris Stephens blamed the “privatisation of asylum accommodation contracts” for causing the crisis.

“The threat to evict 300 asylum-seekers onto the streets of Glasgow must be taken off the table,” he said. “It’s time for the Tories to stop burying their heads in the sand and take urgent action to stop these evictions.

“The process of submitting new evidence for a refused asylum claim is lengthy and complicated for most who might not have an option to return because of fear of persecution, and the proposition that people are ‘refusing’ to leave their homes is ignorant and inaccurate.”

Serco recently lost the Glasgow contract to Mears Group, which will take over in September. But Mr Lavery said the new contractor was “just as culpable” for the current crisis because it had refused to take the unsuccessful applicants onto its books.

“It’s worth bearing in mind that many of the asylum-seekers haven’t reached the end of the appeals process,” the union organiser said. “Around two-thirds of appeals are successful.”

Mears Group has said the “current issues regarding ineligible asylum-seekers are matters for the Home Office and the current contractor to address.”

When the Star contacted Serco for comment, a spokesman said the company had “nothing to add” to a statement on this issue from earlier this month.

The statement claimed that “we cannot be expected to provide free housing indefinitely to hundreds of people who have been unsuccessful in their asylum claims.”