HUNDREDS of protesters have gathered in Glasgow to stand alongside refugees who are facing mass eviction from their homes over the next week.

Around 300 people, including politicians, councillors and activists, were on the steps of the Royal Concert Hall on Buchanan Street for two hours on Tuesday night with placards as they blasted public services group Serco for its “beyond disgusting tactics to displace people from their homes.”

Serco - which provides accommodation for asylum seekers on behalf of the Home Office - said it intends to evict up to 300 asylum seekers in the city who have been refused refugee status.

Serco issued six of those affected with a notice that their locks would be changed within seven days on Monday.

The lock change plan has sparked condemnation from members of all major political parties, except the Conservatives, with councillors and MPs teaming up to write to the Home Secretary calling for a U-turn.

Campaigner Lauren Ní Raghallaigh - who organised the rally - said: “With the night shelter and housing schemes already massively stretched, hundreds of people in Glasgow will be facing street homelessness and will be extremely vulnerable.

“This display of a brutality is not the values of the citizens of Glasgow, and we are urging people to join our protest against this mass eviction.”

Speakers at the rally included Labour & Co-op MP for Glasgow North East, Paul Sweeney, who said: “We need to open our eyes to the reality of what we’re facing in this Tory environment, this hostile policy.”

He also told of a case he had just learned about before speaking involving a young mother with two children, one with learning difficulties, in Springburn who have been told they will be kicked out of their basic accommodation in seven days’ time.

Mr Sweeney added: “She’s terrified out of her wits That is the reality of what this family is facing - living in terror. Not only the terror of being returned to their home country and having to face a system that’s geared up against them, but being turfed out onto the street with nowhere to go.”

Green councillor for Glasgow’s East End, Kim Long, also said the affected asylums seekers have “no other options” which was “atrocious.”

She said: “What makes these evictions the most pernicious is the fact these asylum seekers are not entitled to housing benefit. They want to work and they are not allowed and they are not entitled to go into normal, mainstream homelessness pathways so you are putting people on the streets that have zero other options.”

The crowds also chanted: “Say it loud and say it clear, refugees are welcome here.”

Govan Law Centre said it is “convinced Serco is proposing to act unlawfully,” and that it will working with MPs, Glasgow City Council and charities to protect the asylum seekers.

The centre’s principal solicitor 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 Serco is proposing to act unlawfully, and we will be taking cases before the Scottish courts.

“This is a complex area of law and it’s very unlikely vulnerable people can just be summarily evicted in the way Serco proposes.”

A letter to the Home Secretary from Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken warned those evicted are more likely to become homeless than leave the UK and said it risks creating a “humanitarian crisis” in Glasgow, placing people at “imminent risk of significant harm.”

Serco said it has been providing housing free of charge and without recompense from the Home Office, in some cases for months, for former asylum seekers with no right to stay in the UK.

The company said it is sympathetic to those affected, but believes it has been “more than supportive” and has started legal proceedings for repossession as these residents “no longer have any right to continue to live in the property we provide.”