RAPE, HUNGER AND HOMELESSNESS
By Semret Fesshaye

We came here to seek asylum, but we are being reduced to non-people.

November 1, 2003 – (The Guardian) I am an asylum seeker from Eritrea. At home I was placed in detention because I am a Jehovah's Witness, a religion that is unacceptable to practise in my country. In jail I was raped and beaten so badly that I still have problems walking. I fled to England when I was released for one reason only - I believed that here I would be safe.

But for myself and for thousands of other asylum seekers, England is no longer a safe place. The home secretary has announced that he is tightening the rules about who can claim asylum. Section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 requires him to refuse to provide support for an asylum seeker if he is not satisfied the asylum claim was made as soon as reasonably practicable after the claimant's arrival in Britain.

Asylum seekers who come here with false passports will be penalised. For those of us fleeing persecution in our countries it is almost impossible to leave with our own passports. The officials who beat us won't helpfully stamp our passports and give us their blessing to speak out in the west about human rights abuses. When the British government is on friendly terms with our governments it keeps silent about persecution there. It is also almost impossible to reach western Europe without paying an agent to smuggle us there and provide us with false papers. Agents breathe down our necks at the UK port or airport we arrive at and tell us to say nothing. It is not easy to disobey them and announce that we are here to claim asylum. I know of people who have claimed asylum the day after they arrived in the UK and been told they have left it too late and are therefore not entitled to any support.

There is no doubt the home secretary's policy will reduce the asylum-seeker statistics dramatically. He will be able to boast to the sections of the media which portray us as scroungers that he is ridding the UK of a scourge. On paper we will no longer exist. Our lowly status as asylum seekers is being replaced by even lowlier one as non-people. We will have no right to a roof over our heads, no access to schools for our children, no legal advice and no opportunity to see a GP when we are sick.

The home secretary wants to show that he is "tough as boots" on this issue. A compassionate approach is seen as a vote loser. What he has failed to mention is that although many of us will officially cease to exist, we will still come here because we believe that in our own countries our lives are at risk. In Eritrea I was a nursery teacher. I would love to do that job here. I would be happy to do any job to support myself. I do not want to be a drain on the state, I want to contribute to British society. But I am not allowed to work.

When I first arrived, my asylum claim was rejected and I was forced to sleep rough. Sometimes I slept at Victoria station, sometimes on night buses. I was terrified of being attacked. I know of at least one woman who was raped by a man who offered to help her when she was homeless. Now the government has agreed to process my asylum claim and I have been given a small room in London to live in temporarily. But many asylum seekers are still out on the streets, including pregnant women. I have seen people get sick from sleeping rough and going without food. Sometimes up to five women sleep on the floor of my small room because I know how hard it is to sleep rough and to have absolutely nothing.

Traditionally, asylum seekers in this country have remained silent for fear of deportation. We have allowed others to speak on our behalf, but because the situation we find ourselves in here is disastrous we are starting to speak up for ourselves. Women from Eritrea and other African countries have formed the Eritrean Women's Association to support one another. Other asylum seekers are forming support organisations too.

Although they long to lead normal, law-abiding lives, as non-people some asylum seekers will feel they have no choice but to steal to survive. Without an address it is impossible for officials to keep track of people. Does the Home Office prefer us to disappear into the underbelly of British society? Not seen, not heard and working for shadowy bosses in the jobs many British people don't want to do for a fraction of the minimum wage. We are a useful source of cheap, unregulated labour that can boost the economy.

The government has expended enormous effort in reducing the numbers of rough sleepers. But now a new wave of non-people will seek shelter in the doorways and stairwells of central London.

In Eritrea I didn't know whether I would die by the knife or by the bullet. If this policy continues, some of us who hoped to find a safe haven in Britain risk dying of cold and hunger.

· Semret Fesshaye was a nursery teacher in Asmara, Eritrea and has been in Britain for 10 months. She is a founder member of the Eritrean Women's Association centre@crossroadswomen.net

From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1075565,00.html