Legislation defines an “unaccompanied
asylum seeking child” as a child who
- is applying for asylum in their own right, and
- is separated from both parents and is not being cared for by an
adult who by law has responsibility to do so
A child may move between the
unaccompanied and accompanied categories whilst their applications are under
consideration, e.g. where a child arrives alone but is later united with other
family members in the UK, or a child arrives with their parents or close
relatives but is later abandoned, or a trafficked child, or one brought in on
false papers with an adult claiming to be a relative.
As soon as anyone who has been treated
as a child under these conditions turns 18, they have to apply for refugee
status. Only seven per cent of such applications are successful. If refugee
status is granted, that is valid for five years. At the end of that period, one
has to apply for leave to remain.
Barbara Butler (Executive Secretary of
Christians Aware) introduces the day and welcomes the 30 attendees present at
the start of the conference. She asks us to bear in mind that we are not
talking about the giving of charity in the conventional sense (e.g. of handouts
or food parcels) but the giving of hope, hospitality.
The conference proper starts with
us watching a five minute-long animated film, Rachel's Story, one of a series
of short films from Seeking Refuge, broadcast on BBC 2 in June this
year. Seeking Refuge contains five stories giving a unique insight into
the lives of young people who have sought asylum in the UK, told by the
children themselves. Each of the films conveys different experiences of young
refugees and asylum seekers, while communicating the collective struggles and
hopes of young people fleeing from their country of origin, and the issues they
face adjusting to life in the UK. The stories powerfully explore themes
including persecution, separation and alienation, and seek to inform young
audiences about some of the hardships these children face.
First speaker is David Pitts (on the right in photo above, with Brandon Akem), who sets the topic within an international
context. David is a member of Christians Aware who every year spends time
teaching English to children in camps on the border between Thailand and Burma.
Something that sticks in my mind from David's talk is when he considers the words
that Paul attributes to Jesus, "It is better to give than to receive"
(Acts 20:35) in relation to those who have nothing and who are wholly dependent
on others. It's not good for people to be on the receiving end all the time -
they need to have opportunities to give. David shares tales of some acts of generosity and sacrifice shown to him by the children in the camps.
Alison Birch, from the Leicester
Unaccompanied Child Initiative (LUCI), speaks about the situation with
unaccompanied asylum seeker children in Leicester. There are reckoned to be 195
unaccompanied child asylum seekers in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland.
Of that number, 110 have come here from Afghanistan. She shows a clip from BBC
East Midlands Today about the work of LUCI at The Centre project, based at
Central Baptist Church. Many children and young people are sent to LUCI by
other local authorities in the East Midlands, because of the diversity of
Leicester, as it's assumed that they'll be able to be put in touch with
members of their own community more easily here.
Brandon Akem, who arrived here from
Cameroon aged 16 - volunteers for LUCI while studying Law at Leicester
University. He speaks briefly about his own experience in both receiving and
giving support.
Artist and author,
teacher and educationalist Beate Dehnen (photo above) speaks next on the topic, "Refugees and Art:
Art as Refuge". She shares examples of the kind of material created in her
workshops with asylum seekers and refugees, which she has used a platform on
which to empower people who feel powerless, to help them find a voice when it
appears that no one can hear them. Some work by Beate and participants in
her workshops on the theme, "Here Alone" is on display today. Most of
the attendees take advantage of opportunities to view it throughout the day.
Last session of the morning is given
over to watching the short documentary, Hamedullah:
The Road Home by Sue Clayton. Sue was hoping to be here
herself, but unexpected family commitments have prevented that. Sue is
passionate about empowering young people to express themselves through social
media, film-making and video diaries. Her film introduces us to Hamedullah Hassany,
who arrived in this country as an unaccompanied child asylum seeker a number of
years ago. Upon turning 18, he is deported to Afghanistan, leaving behind
friends, home and studies in Canterbury, where he had been making a life for
himself. Sue gave him a video camera on which to record his experiences in
Afghanistan Although Afghanistan is nominally his home country (though Kabul is
not his home town), Hamedullah is a fish out of water there. After spending
some of his most formative years in England, he has nothing in common with the
people he has been sent to live among and can barely make his way in their
society. The people with whom Hamedullah comes into contact assume that, having
been deported from the UK, he must be a criminal or some other sort of
undesirable. Most shun his company because of that, while others play upon it
for their own ends. He returns to the village where he grew up, only to find
the homes there abandoned and decaying, like ancient ossified relics.
Hamedullah soon comes to the grim conclusion that he has nothing to do, nowhere
to go and no one on whom he can rely for help or friendship. We witness his
transformation from a bright and cheerful, friendly and gentle, motivated and
optimistic young man to one who is bitter and cynical, deflated and degraded,
pessimistic and poisoned.
Hamedullah is still in Afghanistan, subsisting on small amounts of money that
Sue Clayton sends him from sales of the DVD or fund-raising activities on his
behalf.
I felt moved and appalled by this film, in fairly equal measure. Moved by the
plight of Hamedullah, appalled at how anyone thinks this is a civilised thing
to do to another human being.
Lunchtime next: a walk in the crisp December air of Queens Road is required
after what I've just sat through. It takes a few minutes before I feel able to
sit and talk with anyone else, or to eat anything.
After lunch, we have a choice between
one workshop with Alison Birch or another with Lisa Matthews, Campaigns
Coordinator (South) for the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns.
Alison's workshop (photo above) focuses on what is being done - and what can be done -
in Leicester, Lisa's (photo below) on national campaigns.
At the end of the workshop
period, we all come back together and Lisa sums up the day.
It would be an injustice to those who are the focus of today's conference if we
allowed our concern to peter out as we leave Quaker Meeting House. We make
tentative plans for action to capitalise on the commitment of those attending
today. At the very least, we should ensure that future events on this and
related topics should have a more varied line-up in terms of those presenting
and those attending. Greater effort could be made to involve people of other
religions, traditions, cultures and backgrounds (on a mildly ironic
note, Bahá'ís from city and county have been holding their local
convention in an upstairs room and a couple of them join in for the last half
hour of the conference, once their own event is done).
