A former client of BID’s who was held in immigration detention for over 18 months was finally granted refugee status last month.
Arash (not his real name) came to the UK from Iran three years ago, fleeing persecution. As a student, he was involved in peaceful protests against the Iranian Government following the killing of a group of students in Tehran University. Arash’s father, who has been held as a political prisoner several times, was arrested shortly after Arash participated in a protest against the regime. Following this, in fear of being arrested himself, Arash left Iran clandestinely through a people smuggler, and entered the UK using a false passport.
On arrival in the UK, he was arrested and held in a Short Term Holding Facility in the airport. He claimed asylum the day after his arrival in the UK. He was charged with and convicted of entering the UK with a false document, sentenced to twelve months in prison and served with a deportation order. He spent six months in a high security prison before being moved to an Immigration Removal Centre. After he had been in immigration detention for sixteen months we were able to take him on as a client of BID’s, and he was released from immigration detention on bail two months later. (Unfortunately, due to the large number of people now being held in immigration detention for over a year, BID has waiting lists of clients who we are not able to prioritise for representation until they have been detained for very long periods.)
While Arash was in immigration detention, the Iranian security forces came to his parents’ home and confiscated his computer, files and notebooks. Four days before Arash’s asylum appeal, he was dropped by his legal representative. He was unable to find another representative at short notice and was forced to represent himself in court. His appeal was refused. However, he then found a representative who appealed this decision. He was held in immigration detention for over seven months while these proceedings were ongoing, before being released on bail. He was granted status a year later, but is still waiting for the Home Office to provide him with a visa and National Insurance number so that he can seek work.
He says: ‘I escaped from Iran so that I wouldn’t have to become a political prisoner there. If I was still in Iran, I could be in jail, alive or dead now. When I claimed asylum in the UK, the one thing I didn’t expect was to be sent to jail. When the interpreter said to me ‘you’re going to be sent to jail’ I thought she was kidding me.
When you are in immigration detention, you stand nowhere – you don’t know what will happen to you and your future is unforeseeable. In front of your eyes you see that somebody who one day you were playing football with, the next day they are on a plane being forcibly removed from the UK. It is very shocking and very hard. In immigration detention it sometimes feels like the Home Office has tied your hands behind your back and put their feet on your head. If they think you will suffocate, they loosen their hold a bit. I tried to understand what the Home Office think, should I beg or beseech them, or appeal to their compassion, but I couldn’t find any rationality or logic to their decisions.
I got very bad headaches and migraines from the stress. The doctors and nurses in detention can be very rude. One nurse said to me that if I was deported I could get treatment in my own country.
I believe BID was established to give hope to people who are hopeless. I say this from the bottom of my heart. As an asylum seeker you are marginalised. As an immigration detainee, you are marginalised even more. BID was a light at the end of the tunnel for me. And when my asylum appeal was allowed, I felt that there was finally an ear that listened to me, that all my cries had not fallen on deaf ears. I always say that whoever survives from an immigration removal centre, you are not going to die ever.’
