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http://www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/news_and_events/latest_blog

Beautiful but quietly unsettling, I challenge you not to be drawn into its spell. Through its parallel narratives it explores the effect of trauma on the memory. It opens with a quote by Matthew Arnold: “And we forget, because we must…”

It seems like such a simple truth, and yet it is an important reminder of the wonders of the human brain. Forgetting can be a kind of protection.

It is ironic then, that those who come to the UK seeking the protection that asylum can offer, fall victim to the other side of that coin. Many find themselves in the situation where if you want to convince the UK Government of your right to be here, you simply must remember all that went before.

Often within days of fleeing the most traumatic experiences – including psychological, physical and sexual violence or torture – people seeking asylum find themselves subjected to an interview with UK Border Agency officials in which they must reveal all the relevant facts about their asylum claim. If they fail to regurgitate all the facts – the whens, wheres and wherefores of their often near-death experiences – or if there is any inconsistencies that turn up in the telling of the story – it is likely that it will be deemed not credible. Forget at your peril.

While the courts accept that a woman resident in the UK who has been raped may have inconsistent memories of events due to trauma, in the asylum system there is as yet no such recognition. Worrying then that research on women seeking asylum conducted by Scottish Refugee Council and the London School of Tropical medicine last year found that 63% of the women questioned reported difficulty remembering.

One in seven of the same study sample had experienced physical or sexual violence. More than half of the women had recurrent nightmares, difficulty concentrating, were fearful, easily scared, nervous and jumpy. One in five had experienced suicidal thoughts. What of the rest? Perhaps they were indeed protected by that ‘difficulty in remembering. Perhaps they too forget some things because they must.

But who will believe them?

Take action

Read our report ‘Women seeking asylum: violence and health’, and help us raise awareness of the findings. Tweet, blog, or just tell your friends about it.

It’s as common a question as remarking on the weather.   And ultimately our work or professions is part of the way we define ourselves and how others characterise us.  I am a teacher. I am therefore a professional. I am contributing positively to society.

What happens to your identity when your right to work is taken away?

Despair, desolation and even destitution.  These are some of the ways that asylum seekers are impacted while waiting for a decision on their request for asylum in the UK, sometimes for months and even years. 

Perceptions of refugees coming to Britain for economic reasons, a free handout or taking British jobs or are simply untrue. Asylum seekers are looking for a place of safety.

Since 2002, almost all asylum seekers in the UK have been prevented by the Government from working.  As a result, they are forced to rely on minimal state support, as little as £5 a day, or left destitute.

The belief that asylum seekers are unskilled or uneducated is also wrong.  Past studies have shown that the majority of those seeking asylum are highly qualified people who have been successful in their home countries.

There are currently over 1000 refugees working in the UK as doctors, dentists or nurses.  Many more medically qualified asylum seekers are not allowed to work, despite possessing much-needed skills. 

Further disproving these types of misconceptions is the Department of Work and Pensions’ findings that show almost a third of refugees have contributed to British society by doing voluntary work since their arrival.

Take action

Think it’s unfair that asylum seekers cannot work?  Let your concerns be known!  Write to your MP.  You can do this quickly and easily by joining the Still Human Still Here  campaign to urge the government to get behind more sensible rules for asylum seekers to allow them to work if they’ve been in the UK for more than six months.  Make your voice heard, join the campaign!

Do we look like refugees?! has won a Fringe First

‘Do We Look Like Refugees?!’ portrays the lives of Ossetian refugees after the Georgian-Russia war in 2008. The show has won a prestigious Fringe First award from the Scotsman.

This verbatim piece is an honest account of the lives of refugees.  As Lyn Gardner from The Guardian says,

“The people here speak for themselves, simply and directly – and they sing too, beautiful wistful songs of loss and hope.”

‘Do We Look Like Refugees?!’ is on at 11.35am at the Assembly Rooms until Monday 30 August. Book tickets.

Their other production ‘Allegations’ launches this week at The Zoo and portrays hard-hitting stories from Zimbabwe. Book tickets.

As well as the theatre, Beyond Borders is showcasing the work of writers, intellectuals, artists and film-makers from various small nations at the Fringe.

‘Books, Borders & Bikes’ is a weekend of dialogue between international writers and activists including Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah, Palestinian writer Raja Shehadeh and local writers from Scottish PEN

Films are being shown from Palestine, Georgia and Zimbabwe at the Filmhouse. A round table discussion called ‘Mediating conflict’ included Sir Menzies Campbell MP and David Coltart, Minister for Education, Sports, Arts, and Culture for the MDC party in Zimbabwe .

Beyond Borders is an international organization dedicated to facilitating dialogue and cultural exchange between small nations.  For more information please visit www.bbscot.com

The event was called ‘Judged by genetics?’ and was organised by the British Council and Genomics Forum.

Gary Christie, our Policy and Research Manager, was part of the panel which also included Dr Bruce Durie of the University of Strathclyde and Professor Alan Miller, chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission.

The experts on the panel discussed the fact that whilst DNA can tell us a certain amount of information about geographical origins, the relationship between this and a person’s actual nationality is extremely tenuous.

Why were they even having the debate?

The UK Border Agency has been looking into using DNA testing to determine an asylum seeker’s nationality. They are calling this the Human Provenance Project.

This DNA evidence could be used in cases where the Home Office disbelieves the asylum seeker’s claim to come from a particular country. The pilot has been looking at examples where the person seeking asylum claims to be Somali, but the Home Office believes them to come from neighbouring Kenya.  

Gary says, “One in two people fleeing Somalia who the UK Government thinks is safe to return are actually recognised as refugees in need of protection from persecution by a judge when the case goes to appeal. 

“This is an appalling statistic and underlines the need for the UK Border Agency to make better calls on these life and death decisions. It should be focussing on improving how it makes decisions – not abusing science to seek to undermine people’s credibility.“

An information sheet by the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) about the use of DNA by the UK Border Agency says: ‘ILPA has strongly protested against the introduction of this project. The scientific evidence… strongly suggests that the part relating to origins testing is inappropriate.’

The UK  Border Agency has now finished piloting the project, with what appears to be little stakeholder involvement, and are looking at the results.

Tell us what you think about the project.

Spencer’s volunteers have come from countries including Eritrea, Rwanda, Angola and Pakistan.

Not only do these volunteers keep a much-needed service running as they visit lonely and isolated elderly people and take them out on trips, they are building new relationships and helping to dispel the tabloid myths about benefit-grabbing asylum seekers.

In these days of public spending cuts, charities and other organisations are increasingly relying on a willing army of volunteers.

Spencer writes, ‘Witnessing those tabloid-reviled asylum seekers and supposedly selfish economic migrants giving up their own time to help out more vulnerable members of our community really has changed attitudes.’

Are you a refugee who volunteers? Or do you work with refugee volunteers? Share your experiences with us.

Read the full article on the Guardian website

Learning how to fire a gun

Our Arts Officer Belinda managed to grab a quick interview with the co-director Rosanna Jahangard at the Fringe.

Where did you get the idea for the play?

We read an article in the Guardian about hundreds of young people who go missing from Care, most of them minors from abroad who were either refugees or had clearly been trafficked into the country. We wanted to do the play on the fates of those children, to uncover the world of child trafficking and child labour in Britain.

Through social services we met Hanibal, an Eritrean refugee.  His story was so gripping, so awe-inspiring, we had no choice but to work with him and write about it.

What involvement did refugees and people seeking asylum have in putting the play together?

Reading Refugee Support Group introduced us to young refugees. For many we were the only people who actually took the time to listen, and to talk about feelings rather than just facts.

At one point I sat in a room with 7 young men from Afghanistan and I was trying to explain what theatre and drama was. One of them said ‘that’s just what it’s like at home though, everyday’. That became the last line of the play: ‘If it’s drama you’re after, you should visit my home’.

Some of my cousins left Iran because of clashes with the authorities and are now asylum seekers and refugees, so I was able to relate to the people we were interviewing.

What are your plans for the future with the production?
We’re so proud a Youth Theatre with no audition process or hierarchy could stand alongside professional companies and get some recognition.

Since doing the play those involved have become very passionate about refugee rights and I think they would all like to consider keeping All the Queen’s Children alive in some way… so we’ll have to wait and see!

Read a review of All the Queens Children on BroadwayBaby.com

(This post first appeared on our Refugee Week blog)

Glasgow Central Station

After being abused, mistreated, arrested and enduring a long, traumatic period by the people in power in my native country, DRC, my wife C. and I made our mind up to seek an unknown, safer place to live. Anywhere that our rights and opinions would be tolerated, accepted and respected as a human being.

The agent suggested to us the possibility to arrange our journey with our two children to the UK in 2006, one of the rare countries with a long and real democratic background for centuries in the world.

On our arrival at the Home Office’s main reception, we introduced ourselves to the duty officer and explained to him our purpose for being there, to ask for refugee status in the UK, where we expected to be protected against mistreatment and torture.

Straight away the person in charge replied, they don’t ask for refugee status here, but people come here to seek asylum instead. After checking in, he took us to the waiting room until somebody would come to talk to us. After a long interview assisted by a French interpreter, we were given a single room late at the evening at the hotel nearby the Home Office and allowed to stay there awaiting further instructions for five days. While waiting there, I was unable to get even a little sleep, and still was in fear about the outcome for my family back home in DRC. 

We were then transported to Dover, South England, for other formalities and finally, they relocated us at Nayland Rock hotel where we found other asylum seekers from all round the world waiting for the decision to be spread out around the United Kingdom. Two months later the first decision came to send us to Cardiff, another nightmare for the family, because it was our first time to hear about such city, how it looks like? No answer, we had to locate it on the map. 

Another nightmare happened, just a week later, when the previous decision was then amended for us, this time it was Glasgow in Scotland. A new misery for everybody in the hotel who was sent to Glasgow, they started crying with the fear to go far away from London that is supposed to be a safer place. We thought Glasgow was a city with crimes, windy, too cold with the worst weather in the UK. That’s the information we had been told by other people at the hotel. Fortunately I didn’t lose my spirit and hope and was still praying to my God to help me cope with this new situation and I still encouraging wife C,daughter M (10 years old), and son G (8 years old), because we didn’t have an alternative.

But when I and my family arrived at Glasgow after eight hours on the coach, we were still confused. We feelt isolated, with a huge language barrier for a while. To cope with the situation, I was introduced to the British Red Cross, where I received some orientation counselling sessions and information to find a college for an English course. That’s why I am still volunteering there in recognition to their support. But another big challenge was the state of other children back home in DRC. They remained spied on everyday by the soldiers, not allowed to go schools. They had to change the place to live, looking for their safe place every month as both parents, we had fled abroad. My wife couldn’t cope without the other children. She cried everyday, and finally fell sick.

After a positive decision from the Home Office, I was reunited with the rest of my family two years later and today I feel delighted, I started to regain hope and confidence. Now my family is rebuilding our  new life, but I am still campaigning about the positive image of Glasgow. Now we have made some family friends from Scotland, Ivory cost, Cameron, South Africa, Eritrea and Tanzania.

Today Scotland has become my new home, I have peace of mind. I feel safer than back in my native DRC, and all of my children are doing very well at schools, and are totally integrated at the Scottish society, and are involved in many local community activities, football, for the boys and basketball, dance coaching, and girl’s choir in our local church.

Kate E Deeming rehersal for Refugee Week Scotland

By Kate E Deeming

(This post first appeared on our Refugee Week blog.)

I remember a book from when I was a child where a little girl’s friends are ‘too busy’ to play with her on her birthday.  The wee girl ends up creating all sorts of imaginings in her one-some until it is revealed the friends were actually preparing a surprise party and they live and play happily ever after.

This article was first posted in our Refugee Week blog, on June 3, 2010. 

As a refugee, I find people are always interested in where I’m from and why I’m here. They ask: “Why did you come to Glasgow?” 

They don’t understand that I didn’t ever chose to come here. I fled my country looking for safety, and when I applied for asylum in Britain, the UK Border Agency sent me to this Scottish city – a place that I’d never heard of but which has become home.

Here for anyone who doesn’t know are the definitions of a refugee and asylum seeker. I’m hoping it helps people understand….

Under the United Nations Convention relating to the status of refugees from 1951, a Refugee is a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality, is unable to or, owing to such a fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country.

Until a request for refuge has been accepted, the person is referred to as an asylum seeker.

Refugees were defined as a legal group in response to the large numbers of people fleeing Eastern Europe following World War II. As of December 31, 2005, the largest source countries of refugees were Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar, Sudan and Palestinian Territories.