VULNERABLE asylum seekers facing eviction in Glasgow have told of the toll the stress of potential street homelessness is having on their bodies.

Married couple Muhammed and Khadija Anwar from Govan are among the 150 asylum seekers in Glasgow who are at risk of having their locks changed and being forced from their homes by Home Office contractor Serco.

The pair, now both in their seventies and battling arthritis, dementia and heart troubles, have been together for eight years and rely on each other for daily care.

However, with Khadija originally coming from Kenya, and her husband Muhammed moving to Scotland from Pakistan 13 years ago, they face the prospect of being split up if they are turfed out by Serco.

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Mrs Anwar said: “We have lived together for nearly eight years. We have been fighting and struggling with this case and the system.

“We used to do so many things and go to so many places - charities, foodbanks. But now I am tired. Both of us can’t go anywhere.

“I am struggling with arthritis and have vertigo. I can’t go anywhere alone. He has a heart problem, dementia, and for nearly five months now we have had no support. We are struggling.

“We go to positive action, and they help us. But it is very difficult.

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“We are over 70. I don’t know what they can do to us? They can’t lock the flat. Already I cannot bear the cold in the house.

"How can they just lock our door and put us on the street? Will we stay on the roads in this cold?

“My whole body is aching, and I am so worried.

"He is my loving husband, and we can’t stay without each other. We are from different countries, and we hope they don’t do this to us, throw us in separate countries.”

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Over 300 people in Glasgow could now be put at risk as a result of Wednesday’s judgement, with those still in Serco accommodation reportedly terrified at the prospect of spending the winter on the streets.

Serco said it would work with the authorities and the sheriff court in Glasgow to ensure an "orderly sensitive application of the law", and it would not seek to remove more than 20 people in any one week from their properties.

Those who have experience in the system say they cannot understand why Serco are being allowed to ‘break into’ people’s homes, bypassing legal means of eviction.

Refugee Kourosh Pezeshk, 26, said: “I don’t know how they are allowed to just break into the house and change the lock without the permission of any judge. I have been through the courts.

"Because there is no support for people from the system, already things are taking too long. What do you want me to do?

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“They shouldn’t let people be homeless, and there are no night shelters. We are already struggling for food. How dare they, they can’t do this!”

Lawyers defending asylum seekers from being made homeless agree that the potential effects of people being thrown onto the streets could be ‘catastrophic’.

Lorna Walker, partner, Govan Law Centre, said: “To lose your home and become street homeless, when you have no recourse to public funds, is one of the worst things that could possibly happen to a human being.

“It is our position, that without a court of law, the outcome can be catastrophic.

"It has profound consequences for people in Scotland.

"We are deeply concerned that it is held that the human rights act does not extend to prevent this vulnerable group of people from being evicted in this way.”