Destitute failed asylum seekers in Glasgow have been offered sleeping bags and hygiene kits by the Red Cross.

More than 100 families facing eviction under UK Government rules.

The move has provoked anger, and those who attended an emergency surgery in the city's Sighthill area rejected the offer.

Iraqi Kurd Karzan Omer said he and his wife Shewa Mohamad had been told they should take a sleeping bag each and sleep in local gardens or parks if necessary.

He said they were not willing to do so. "I am not a junkie and we are not animals," he told The Herald. "Nobody took them."

Estimates vary about how many people are facing eviction in the city.

All have seen their asylum claims fail and are no longer entitled to any Government support.

However, Glasgow City Council, which used to manage asylum seeker accommodation on behalf of the UK Border Agency (UKBA), and the charity YPeople which took the contract over, have operated a policy of not immediately evicting people who are unable to return to their country of origin.

The crisis has arisen because YPeople itself has subsequently lost the contract to provide accommodation, with responsibility for housing asylum seekers passing to multinational corporation Serco from November this year. YPeople has now sent letters to tenants whose asylum claims have been refused warning them the charity can no longer support them during the handover period.

Mr Omer said the surgery had been attended by about 40 people, and staff from the Red Cross and the Refugee Council. He added: "They said 'here's one sleeping bag for you and one for your wife – sleep in the street or the local gardens'. They also offered us shampoo and toilet tissue.

"We don't want to leave our house. It is not just us."

A spokeswoman for the British Red Cross denied people would have been advised to sleep in parks or gardens. She added: "We would never advise people to sleep rough.

"However, as a humanitarian organisation our primary concern is the welfare of these vulnerable people. We held this surgery to advise people and talk to them about what alternatives they have got.

"As part of our destitution services we were offering supplies to people including sleeping bags and hygiene kits suitable for keeping clean when you don't have regular access to a bathroom. Sleeping bags can be useful if people have to stay with friends or sleep on someone's floor."

She confirmed no-one had taken a sleeping bag away from the meeting.

The Scottish Refugee Council said it was calling on the UKBA to change its policies on which countries failed asylum seekers can be returned to.

A spokesman said: "YPeople and Glasgow before them have mitigated the true extent of the situation in Glasgow compared with the rest of the UK. This is bringing home the injustice and inhumanity of the UK's policy.

"The vast majority of people affected come from countries such as Iraq, Iran or Zimbabwe were it is simply unsafe for them to return. So they are being condemned to destitution and a twilight existence."

Robina Qureshi, director of the campaign group Positive Action in Housing said the UKBA were to blame for the situation, but also criticised YPeople. "They have six months before they have to hand the properties over to Serco, but they are doing this now. What is a Christian charity doing evicting people at Easter?" she asked.

A spokesman for YPeople said the charity had done everything it could and had spent £500,000 a year of its funds to avoid having to make people destitute.