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The realities refugees face once in the UK

  • Writer: Acacia Redding
    Acacia Redding
  • Jun 4, 2019
  • 4 min read

Updated: Jan 24, 2022

It’s 2019. You arrive in Dover, England, having fled persecution, conflict, or torture in hopes of a brighter future. You’ve spent the past two years making the journey, and it hasn’t been an easy ride. You will finally be safe from oppression, be free to live the life you want and be able to start again. But after submitting your asylum claim, you begin to realise your journey is far from over.


While no longer subject to injustice in the countries they have fled, a whole new battle is awaiting asylum-seekers and refugees within Britain’s borders.


“Most refugees, if not all, fall into a state of isolation,” says Baraa Halabeih, Syrian refugee, actor, and interpreter who arrived in the UK in 2016. After spending six months in the now-demolished Calais Jungle, a refugee camp in France, Halabeih continued his journey to the UK. But his struggles did not end there.

Actor for Psyche Delight, a theatre company made up of refugees an asylum seekers, Baraa Halabeih uses acting to bring light to the issues he has faced // Photo: Jose Farinha
Baraa Halabeih / Photo: Jose Farinha

“When you arrive [in] England, there is no-one around,” he says. “It’s like [people think] ‘okay you’re in the UK, so now you are sorted’.”


But this is far from true. While Halabeih’s application was accepted after six months, he was no stranger to the government’s ‘hostile environment’, a set of immigration controls introduced in 2010.


“The Home Office [is] constantly trying to prove that [asylum-seekers] are liars, that they should be deported,” says Anneke Elwes, founder of Host Nation, a charity that connects refugees and asylum seekers with people in London.


“We think we have this fair system where people are innocent until proven guilty. But in immigration tribunals, that tends to be the other way around,” she says.


And the hostile environment does not come without consequences. Given that victims of persecution, torture, and interrogation become victims of prejudice, destitution and more interrogation in the UK, Mind UK, mental health charity, found the waiting process to have the most serious impact on refugees’ mental health.


“They’ve got the trauma of getting here and then they’ve got to deal with the home office,” says Sara Nathan, co-founder of Refugees at Home, a charity which finds temporary accomodation for those in need.

“Frankly, dealing with the home office for six months would make most of us depressed and give us [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder], without any of the rest of it.”

On top of this, while awaiting their application status, however long, asylum-seekers are unable to work or apply for education, relying heavily on £37.75 a week, roughly £5 per day, from the Home Office. In London, this can make life particularly difficult.

“[It] is barely enough for transportation,” Halabeih says. “If I’m going to go, for example, to a [charity] event, I’m going to spend the £5 on transportation. Either I spend it on transportation or food.”

Despite the UK receiving just 5% of the European Economic Area’s (EEA) asylum claims according to the Migration Observatory, some are given the chance to restart their lives. However, according to the Refugee Council, just 33% of initial asylum applications are accepted, with others facing deportation or left to rely on courts to grant them safety.


Yet when ‘leave to remain’ is granted, a frantic race begins, with 28 days to leave Home Office accommodation and give up the allowance they have relied on. And with housing, banking, and employment processes being time-consuming and complicated, 28 days is sometimes not enough.

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Sara Nathan [middle left] and her husband Malcolm Singer [middle right], with Reza Amiri [left] from Iran and Murtesa Hasen [right] from Ethiopia, both guests of Sara’s through Refugees at Home // Photo: Sara Nathan

“[Many] get the wonderful news they’ve got asylum, so we acknowledge that they have a well-founded fear of persecution, and then we treat them as if they can immediately move on to becoming productive members of society,” Nathan says.


“Navigating the system is very hard, actually. It’s hard for Brits, especially people who have had little opportunity.”


And due to such difficulties, some see it as almost inevitable that refugees and asylum seekers will face discrimination. In light of government hostility, with former Prime-Minister David Cameron famously referring to migrants as “swarms”, as well as austerity measures, Elwes doesn’t blame those with intolerant views. Many of whom, she argues, are marginalised themselves.


She says: “They see people who don’t speak that much English coming from other parts of the world into areas that have got their own problems and feel that […] migrants are not welcome because it’s hard as it is to get decent housing or a job.”


Despite the narrative that refugees are undesirable for the economy, Nathan thinks simple policy changes would be “sensible and less expensive” for the country. As well as viewing detention centres as a “complete waste of money” and the 28-day rule as “impractical”, she would like asylum-seekers to be permitted to work.

“It’s ridiculous because they have to be dependent,” she says. If allowed, “they wouldn’t need housing and they wouldn’t need the allowance. It would be much less wasteful than the current system and would mean that the people weren’t idle and alienated.”

But with hostile environment policies preventing work and education, many turn to non-government organisations and community groups for the assistance they need.

Janie MacIntyre, co-founder of Refugee Community Kitchen, a charity that serves food to displaced people across the world, believes that the most beneficial help will come from within.

“I have the feeling in my heart that people are realising that if you want a better community, you have to be involved and help your most vulnerable people,” she says.

And this vision of community engagement is shared by Halabeih. Despite having experienced discrimination, and on one occasion asked if “they have comedy in Syria”, he acknowledges that some aren’t educated on the matter and uses his acting to share his experiences. Part of a Psyche Delight, a theatre company formed of refugees and asylum seekers, he and his colleagues use theatre and comedy to educate others.


“The difference is when you find out that you don’t have any idea about it, do you stay at that point or do you try to understand?” he says.

And Baraa has faith that the generations to follow will do just that.

“They’re going to be the future leaders. If we start now and open their eyes about what migration is [and] who refugees are, it might change the way they see the world.”
 
 
 

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