I am forwarding this article on behalf of Ari Moustafa, an Iraqi Kurdish asylum seeker and community activist from Burngreave, Sheffield.
Stu


Asylum seeker between life and death


What’s an asylum seeker? Have asylum seekers got the right to live?
Asylum seekers are victims from the war, civil war, racism, politics, religion and economic problems.

Asylum seekers – Why they left their home country.

Some of them left the country because of politics.
Some of them left the country because of war.
Other people left the country because of civil war.
Nationality is a cause for people leaving their country.
Religion is a reason why they left the country.
Human rights issues are also a possible reason.

An asylum seeker may have left their home country for one of the above reasons. They may have left their children, mother, father, sister, brother or loved one as well as their country and their job. They leave everything and leave their lives to fate. The tears on his cheek remind him every single day of his life. He knows he is a foreigner. Some people may ask where are you from? Why did you leave your country? What made you decide to live here? For some people fate takes over and many don’t have a safe journey. He doesn’t receive basic human rights or witness the democracy of a safe country. His children, mother, father, sister, brother or loved ones are still waiting to hear from him, waiting for some news. They don’t know what happened to him. They don’t know if he is alive or dead. Many people’s stories are like that. I cannot write everybody’s story in this article. Other people try to seek asylum with the Home Office when they arrive in the country, explaining their bad situations, about their history and their case. The Home Office may believe them or not.

If the Home Office believes him, he has got a good chance that he will get a positive decision and become a refugee. However, this is if the Home Office believes him. If not he is in big trouble. If the Home Office don’t believe him he will be refused.

After the first refusal he can go to the immigration judgement court. If he gets a positive decision he will be a refugee. If he is refused again, his situation will be worse as his National Asylum Support Service (NASS) benefits will be stopped and he will lose his accommodation. Homeless, without support and without permission to work he also needs around £500 just for tribunal court. Where will he find this money and how will he get it? Where will he live without support and without permission to work?

In my opinion the Home Office have a responsibility when someone gets a refusal. He has no money to get to the High Court and is in fact destitute. He is requested by the Home Office to return voluntarily to the very place he fears or face destitution. He becomes homeless and destitute, he has no rights to work and consequently no income to support himself. I ask you, “What should he do?” He has little or no choice but to break the law, for example, by selling drugs, or any other illegal act, or simply working without permission. If he works illegally the employer probably pays well below the minimum wage. So who is responsible for the asylum seeker’s actions?

I will stop here and I leave you the reader to think and decide who is at fault, who has made the wrong decision and who is doing the wrong thing.

Ari Moustafa