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United Kingdom - Bradford Diocese
The Mothers' Union in the Bradford Diocese has been actively involved with asylum seekers and refugees since the Spring of 2001. (An asylum seeker is someone who has sought legal protection under the UN Convention relating to refugees in another country against persecution in their homeland. If their application is granted they are allowed to stay in the new country indefinitely.) Bradford is one of the areas that asylum seekers and refugees come to because of 'surplus housing' and there are between 2,000 and 4,000 people with different immigration status in the area.
The Mothers' Union saw that there was a need to hold out the hand of friendship to these people “strangers in a foreign land”, and after much thought and prayer we started a 'drop-in centre' in one of our Church buildings near to the city centre. With the help of Health Visitors we invited asylum seekers/refugees to the centre and offered them support and a listening ear. Families and others who are alone, from many countries, have come to the centre, and friendships have been built between people of different cultures and faiths. Often it has taken a long time for the refugees to feel comfortable and to be able to share their problems, as they have arrived in Bradford with feelings of insecurity, isolation, fear and loneliness. Many of them have left their families behind and tell harrowing stories of the oppression and persecution that they have suffered. They wonder if they will ever be able to return to the country of their birth and even whether they will see their families again.
We have met Christians from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Sudan, Zimbabwe and other African Countries; people from Eastern Europe both Muslim and Christian and many others, also Muslims, from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. They desperately want to be accepted into our society and are keen to learn English so that, if their application for asylum is granted, they can seek work and not be dependent on the state. Many of them left highly qualified jobs in their own countries and want to use their skills here in England.
Asylum seekers are provided with a house and a small allowance while they are waiting for their application for refugee status to be dealt with. For various reasons the Government support system sometimes breaks down and Mothers' Union has been able to give the asylum seekers the love and support they need. Practical help with everyday items of clothing, bedding and equipment has been possible because of the generosity of the many Mothers' Union members and Church families who are sympathetic to our work throughout the Bradford Diocese.
We remember what the Lord expects of us “To do what is just, to show constant love, and to walk humbly with God,” Micah Chapter 6 v 8.
Deportation
The Church Mission Society (CMS) works alongside families seeking asylum in Britain. Here is the story of what happened to one family who were not allowed to stay. (Names have been changed.)
“15 immigration officers turned up at 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning and told us we had 20 minutes to pack - one bag each.”
The Burgja family - parents and three children - live in Kosovo/a. They were deported from Folkestone, UK in September 2002 after living in England as asylum seekers for five years.
In their 20 minutes, the family made some hurried phone calls to friends in Folkestone to arrange dropping off the key so that their belongings could eventually follow them home. Besim, aged 12, quickly packed his computer games but they had to be left behind. His sister ran upstairs pursued by a woman police officer.
“I slammed the door and shouted to her to go away so I could have a few minutes to myself to pack my things. It was horrible.”
The family were taken to the Removal Centre in Dover and placed in detention for five days in dormitories: the mother and children in one; the father, Gesim in another.
“We had to ask for food and drink. Besim got left out once - he actually had to beg for a glass of water.”
After five days in Dover, they were flown to Germany. (They were sent there because that was where they made their original application for asylum in 1991.) Gesim was put in detention, but his wife and the children were allowed to stay in an apartment. Five weeks later, Gesim was released and they were flown back to Kosovo/a.
Gesim had originally gone to Germany because his face was on a wanted poster in Kosovo/a, just for joining a demonstration. When he found out that the Serbs were going to raid his apartment, he fled. His family followed a few months later. But Germany did not grant them asylum. Instead they started sending Kosovars back to Serbia and Kosovo/a just as Milosovic started his murderous purge against Kosovar Albanians. Many Kosovars were imprisoned, or worse, as soon as they got off the plane.
“I couldn't let them send me and my family back to almost certain death, so we got on a lorry and went to England and applied there.”
The German Government then denied threatening to send them home, so the British Government didn't grant them asylum either, and kept them waiting for a decision for five years.
“Every day, for five years, every day we waited for a letter, a phone call. We had just bought Besim his uniform for secondary school. He was really looking forward to going to a new school and making new friends.”
But Besim never made it to the new school, and now the family must try and make a new life in Kosovo/a. They have scraped together enough to build a house but Gesim's wage as a translator in the local prison is hardly enough to buy food, let alone everything else needed to rebuild a life in a country recovering from the horrors of war and ethnic cleansing.
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