I
am very sorry for being a terrible correspondent. I would like to point
out that this is in contradistinction to everybody else involved in the
project. They do their part and then some. It is why it is such a
joyous, wonderful thing to be involved with. I hope that many of you
feel the same way. Anyway, I am going to dedicate this much overdue
newsletter to joy. That is because my world, despite all the horror, is
joyful and that it is largely thanks to t4k.
Those who eat together, fight together
The first bit of joy is news of an upcoming event. Our friends at the Jollof Café are putting on an evening of food and talks. It is a sort of symposium with less wine and fewer slave girls. At least one of those two things is a good thing. It is entitled ‘Freedom to move, Freedom to stay’. There will be three speakers and a Nigerian feast:
- Ubah Dirie – Garden Court Chambers (Immigration Barrister). Discusses the crucial role and limits of the Human Rights Act in assisting those who can no longer stay home because of Western depredation of their environment, with a particular focus on the Niger-Delta.
- Dr Louise Purbrick – Radio Calais. Explores the problem of limbo and emancipation from it, questioning what it means to be in transit, why it is problematic and how we resist it.
- Sara Alsherif – Open Rights Group. Explores bureaucracy and surveillance as tools of exclusion and othering, even for those who have already been granted Leave to Remain, with eVisas as a case in point.
- Plus Jollof Café’s chefs serve up a vegetarian Nigerian feast, jollof rice, plantain, ewa oloyin (honey beans), puff puff and zobo (hibiscus juice flavoured with pineapple).
It is on 18th December and you can book your tickets here.
Freedom to move
Some of you will remember, that we did a very similar event many, many moons ago when one of our people was trying to fund raise to be able to reunite with his daughter. The money raised for that event was sufficient for him to travel to Kenya to spend some time with his daughter. The visit was vital in demonstrating that he had maintained a parental relationship with her. Now finally, after far too many applications, refusals and appeals, his daughter has been granted a visa. She will be with us here in Brighton soon, but he needs a little bit of support to purchase all the things a teenage girl might need. If you can help, the fundraiser, organised by Refugee Radio, is here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-reunite-paul-and-aminah-after-a-decadelong-battle.
Freedom to stay
There have been three enormous victories for some of the people you support in the last month or so. This brings me joy. One of our most long-term residents after a very long struggle was granted leave to remain. She has been here over 20 years. I think that she has been with us since 2018. I think that I am referring to her in this old newsletter. If so, you managed to keep all three of the people mentioned in that newsletter housed and now all three have leave to remain. Enormous thanks must also go to Voices in Exile who helped our woman find a lawyer, Philippa Roffey, at Elder Rahimi. Philippa was prepared to apply for Exceptional Case Funding to make a complicated Article 8 application. The application was successful. If anybody knows of an affordable one-bedroom or studio flat to rent, that would be super helpful. There were also tribunal wins for two Jollof people. They both had very complicated claims. It is safe to say that without the emotional support of the community, there is no way that they would have made it.
I want to focus a little bit on the second of the two people, a woman from a stable country who had fled domestic violence. I think that what happened to her is really telling about how unfair the system is and how wonderful the network you have built is in challenging that. The woman in question had experienced violence and was at risk of worse from, as the lawyers say, ‘non-state actors’. She fled to the UK and gone to stay with a relative. As is often the case, the original plan was to take a break, let things cool down and then return home and move on with life. I don’t know whether the plan never works because men are so vindictive or I only meet the ones who cannot go back. It is probably a bit of column A, and a bit of column B. The woman in question did go to a solicitor but was told that there was no possibility of making an asylum claim. This was very bad legal advice. Of course, it led to cash in hand work and serious exploitation. She eventually escaped that and entered into the rather bizarre world of support for victims of modern slavery. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the systems exist. It’s just that they are really opaque to everybody, including the people they are meant to be supporting. You have a bunch of rights and entitlements, but it’s really hard to work out what they are and whether you are receiving them. There is also the problem that being acknowledged as a victim of trafficking or modern slavery does not give you a right to remain in this country.
Her asylum claim had been refused. She had lodged an appeal, but her former solicitors had decided that the appeal was too complicated for them. She was unrepresented. A few days before the appeal hearing, she was sent our way by BERTS. She was trying to gather letters of support because of a misunderstanding of the instructions that she had been given by the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal. I sat down with her and went through the paperwork. I tried to give her some understanding of what would happen at the appeal and what she needed to do. Fortunately, I had a meeting with my supervisor, Jo Wilding, the next day. Jo is an expert, among other things, on trafficking and asylum. I mentioned the problem to her and she suggested that the woman in question might want to ask for an adjournment. She even made some notes as to possible grounds. We were making progress.
I accompanied my new friend to Taylor House on the day of the hearing. As is my tradition, I had pinged a message to a barrister friend, Ubah Dirie, the very same person who will be talking on the 18th, just to see if she would be in the tribunal that day. Now, I know Ubah because she had represented one of the very first people you housed. She had ended up doing it pro bono, and since then we have been friends. She has been an amazing help over the years. As it happened, Ubah was representing someone that morning. She came to say hello and met my new friend. When Ubah found out what was happening, she was outraged. She came into the tribunal with us as a visitor. This rather surprised the judge, who knew Ubah quite well. It also upset the Home Office presenting officer. With a bit of assistance from Ubah and Jo’s notes, our person was able to win her adjournment. We just had to find a lawyer.
Ubah emailed lots of solicitors, although none of them had capacity. Just as an aside, Jo Wilding recently showed that 57% of asylum seekers are now unrepresented. This is a scandal. Fortunately, BHT
had just employed a new person, Iain Palmer. Iain is also a friend. He
had represented another woman you housed. She had helped organise an
event for refugee week with the library. A number of lawyers, including
Jo and Iain, came to do some triage with unrepresented asylum seekers.
That was where I met him. I’m sure that he would have taken the case
without knowing me personally, but the personal connection certainly
allowed me to know that BHT were worth a try because they might have
extra capacity.
Unfortunately, Iain did not get the best initial instruction. He didn’t
feel able, quite rightly, to take the case on legal aid. Fortunately, he
was aware that there was probably more to the case then he had been
told and that our person would be able to successfully challenge his
decision because she had mine and, crucially, Ubah’s support. We duly
filled in the form challenging Iain’s decision, laying out the full
details of the case. Unsurprisingly, the legal aid agency agreed with
Ubah. This allowed Iain to do his usual impeccable work. He instructed a
high quality barrister. Ubah, unfortunately, had not been available to
take the case. With the case being properly prepared, the tribunal judge
recognised what had been apparent all along, namely that our woman’s
life was in danger on return to her country of origin. She is expecting
her eVisa any day now. She is still in my phone book as ‘NAME
lastminute.com’, her self-description, not mine.
It feels nothing short of a miracle, but it’s not. It is the product of the network that you have built. It is grossly unfair though. Given that she found the network, we were able to give her the support that she needed to be recognised as what she is, namely a refugee. What is so unfair is that that network is needed. We do not have a system that believes women, or indeed refugees of any gender, that recognises that people need support, that they are trustworthy, or at least worth trusting, and, perhaps most tragically of all, spends its time trying to beat people down rather than build them up. As a consequence, we spend so much of our time and energy trying to negate that system. We do also manage to provide love and joy. Imagine, though, a world in which all of our energies could be put into the latter. This little community is already beautiful. Imagine what it would be if we could just focus on the building joy part. The really good news is that, if we keep going, then one day that is all we will do
