I fled war in Iraq to seek asylum in England (From Daily Echo)

I fled war in Iraq to seek asylum in England

7:00am Sunday 5th October 2008 in News

I FLED WAR in iraq to seek asylum in England

AFTER a ten-day journey across Europe hidden in the back of a truck, teenageasylum seeker Ahmed arrived in Southampton. The traumatised 16-year-old fled Iraq after both his parents were killed and there were fears for his safety.

When he was dropped off in the middle of the night outside the docks, Ahmed didn’t even know which country he was in.

The frightened teenager was separated from his family, had no money and could hardly speak a word of English.

Ahmed (not his real name) said: “I walked the streets like some crazy person. I didn’t know what was happening in my life. I had no money, no water, no place to stay.”

Together with another teenage refugee who arrived in the country on the same lorry, Ahmed went to Southampton Central Police Station to claim asylum.

Despite being a child, he was locked up in a police cell for four days and nights while officers searched for an interpreter who could speak Arabic or Kurdish.

Ahmed, now 21, said: “I didn’t speak English. I was scared. If someone just walked past me I thought maybe they were going to kill me. I had never been in a prison in my life. I grew up in a nice house in Baghdad with my mum and dad.

“When the interpreter came, he said ‘Don’t worry, you are in a safe country’. He gave me advice and explained to the police where I was from and why I came here.”

Ahmed’s father had been a general in the Iraqi Army under Saddam Hussein and his mother had been active in local women’s committees.

This made them both a target in the turmoil after the British and American invasion of Iraq in 2003.

After his parents were murdered, Ahmed stopped going to school and went into hiding, but still received threats.

His uncle decided it would be safest for his nephew to leave Iraq and paid people-smugglers $4,000 to get him out of the country.

Ahmed said: “One night he said to me that I had to leave the country. It was a very hard situation. But I understood that if I stayed in Iraq, I would be killed.”

The teenager was smuggled out of Iraq with about seven other people in the back of a truck. They spend ten days travelling across Iran, Turkey, Italy and France – changing vehicles several times.

Ahmed said: “It was a very bad situation. I didn’t know what was going to happen – if I was going to live or die. People were crying around me. Everywhere we went we had to hide.”

After he was released from police custody, Southampton City Council allocated the teenage refugee a social worker, found him lodgings and gave him about £30 a week to live on.

Councils are responsible for the education and welfare of unaccompanied child asylum seekers.

Ahmed enrolled on an English course at City College.

But housing proved a problem. Instead of placing him with a foster family, the council put the young teenager in a shared house in St Mary’s with a group of men aged over 21.

He was expected to cook, clean and fend for himself like an adult.

Ahmed said: “I had nobody. I just went to my room and stayed in and watched TV. The men would drink, smoke and bring girls home. I told my social worker ‘I can’t live here any more’.”

He moved lodgings several times over the next two years, on one occasion only staying a few days because of similar problems.

Eighteenth birthdays are usually a cause for celebration, but not for orphaned child refugees. They have to leave council care.

Ahmed’s rent and financial support was stopped.

Destitute and alone, he relied on friends to provide a roof over his head and give him money for food and clothes.

He also had to apply to the Home Office to stay in this country.

Unaccompanied children are usually allowed to remain in Britain but only until they are 18, when their cases are reconsidered as adults. Ahmed was still waiting for a decision from the Home Office when he fell ill.

After blood tests, he received the devastating news he had leukaemia, a form of blood cancer.

The hospital consultant told him he might need a bone marrow transplant costing £45,000, but he was not eligible for NHS treatment.

Ahmed, who had spent months in Southampton General Hospital, said: “It was a hard, hard situation to be sick without Mum and Dad and no family.”

An English neighbour, who had previously helped Ahmed, visited him in hospital.

Ahmed said: “She gave me a hug and said not to worry. When I left hospital she fed me and gave me clothes. She has been so good to me.”

The desperately ill teenager then received a £7,000 bill for his hospital stay. This was the last straw for his neighbour who drove him to Southampton Itchen MP Alan Whitehead’s office for help and to Portsmouth Refugee Action.

A top-level meeting was called involving Ahmed, his neighbour, his hospital consultant and social services.

As a result, the council said it would look after the teenager as a “vulnerable young adult” until the age of 21.

The hospital also agreed to treat him free of charge after his consultant said without medication he could die.

Ahmed was placed with a foster family in Millbrook, Southampton, but it didn’t work out. He said: “In three months, I never ate with them. I really wanted to be part of a family so that I could mix with English people and learn the language and culture and maybe have a foster mum to cook nice meals for me and do my washing. That happened for my friend, but I was unlucky.”

During this time he experienced racial persecution. “It was a rough part of Millbrook. People saw my hair was black and looked at me like I was a foreigner. They swore at me. I got into fights.” So he left.

Now he is living in a rented flat with a friend. But, as happened before, the council has cut off his rent and benefits because he is now 21.

Southampton and Winchester Visitors’ Group (SWVG) stepped in to pay his rent as an emergency measure and organised a voucher for the Basics Bank so he can collect food parcels.

But SWVG hope the city council will agree to financially support Ahmed again under a scheme for destitute people because of his serious health problems.

Meanwhile the Home Office is reconsidering his application for temporary leave to stay after SWVG supplied Ahmed with a solicitor. His supporters hope Ahmed will now be allowed to stay on humanitarian grounds because the lifesaving treatment he needs for leukaemia is not available in Iraq.

Ahmed says what he wants more than anything is to be able to make a life for himself in England. His ambition is to become a hairdresser.

The 21-year-old said: “I don’t want anything special, just a life like everyone else. I will die if I have to go back to Iraq. It is not safe for British or American soldiers, so how can it be safe for me?”

Rachel Masker