To build on the awesome efforts of the STAR and Amnesty networks on Action Day – and the inspiring achievements in demonstrating support for refused asylum seekers living destitute in the UK – a mini lobby will bring together STAR and Amnesty members once again. The mini lobby will be a high profile culmination of STAR national campaigning for the Still Human Still Here campaign. More info about what we are campaigning for can be found here

The ‘mini lobby’ will be in Committee room 20 in Parliament from 12 – 4pm and will be followed by the handover of the 4,000 strong Still Human Still Here petition collected by STAR and Amnesty members on Action Day.

If you would like to get involved in this fantastic opportunity and can join the network on May 14th, then we have all the resources and info you need right here. Al you need to do is get in touch with your MP and request a meeting with them. A model letter can be found below. To find out who your local MP is you can check out the Locata website. They Work for You is also useful.

You can download all the resources here:

Mini Lobby Action Guide

Mini Lobby: Letter to MPs

Guide to holding a successful lobby

What will be happenning on Wednesday 14th May

• Meeting at Westminster tube station at 10.30 before going off for a slice of cake and an opportunity for a pre-lobby briefing.

• At 11:40 we will be entering Parliament and setting up in our venue for the afternoon, Committee Room 20.

• During the day there will be speeches whilst we wait to be joined by the MPs of those attending the ‘mini lobby’.

• Throughout the afternoon we will have the chance to meet MPs to raise our concerns about the forced destitution of refused asylum seekers and to ask them to write to the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith.

• At 4pm we will walk the short distance to the Home Office, where we will present the Still Human Still Here petition with all the signatures collected on Action Day

• After this we will be able to chill out after a busy day before heading home.

If you can attend the lobby on the 14th or if you have any questions about the lobby and how you can get involved, please e-mail John at the STAR National Support Office:
stillhuman(AT)star-network.org.uk
You can also call John on 0208 980 7036 (Ext 202)

Information about refugees and volunteering with refugees is often scattered around the web and not very accessible. RefugeeMap seeks to gather this information in one place in an easily accessible form. By allowing people to contribute and take part in building the site it is hoped that the site will be genuinely volunteer led, supplying information that volunteers think is useful. The group of volunteers who built it are hoping that it will become an ‘an all singing, all dancing, one stop shop of information for anyone intersted in refugee issues and volunteering with refugees!’.

To contribute, just visit the site and get started!

RefugeeMap

• The right to work
• Section 4 voucher provision
• Destitution of children and young people seeking asylum

STAR members will only be campaigning on one of these issues as a national network across the next academic year. So, if you are involved in a STAR group, this is your chance to influence the decision.

How STAR groups can participate in the campaign consultation

Information on how you can participate: the campaign proposals, guidance notes and feedback form – as well as info on representing STAR at the final decision meeting at the end of May – are available to download here.

STAR_Campaign_consultation_discussion_guidance.pdf

STAR_Campaign_consultation_question_sheet.pdf

STAR_Campaign_proposal_Destitution_of_children.pdf

STAR_Campaign_proposal_Right_to_work.pdf

STAR_Campaign_proposal_Section_4_vouchers.pdf

All STAR groups chairs have also received this information by post.

National Support Office

Regional Coordinators and STAR staff are keen to visit as many student groups as possible throughout this month, to run a consultation session with you directly. Please contact the National Support Office to arrange a visit

If you have any other questions or comments, drop STAR’s new campaign intern Celia an email at campaigns(at)star-network.org.uk.

The consultation will end on Friday 23rd of May, so please make sure that the National Support Office has received all your input by this date.

The ruling may have knock on effects for up to 11 000 refused asylum seekers who are unable to be returned to their country of origin and are therefore considered to be ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK.

‘A’s lawyers had highlighted the fact that – like many refused asylum seekers – he was unable to return to his country of origin due to the current situation (in his case in Palestine), but was equally denied the right to work. Restricting access to free healthcare whilst suffering from a serious condition was therefore inhuman and degrading.

In response, the Refugee Council said ‘This is a very important and welcome judgement. For the last four years we have sent the devastating impact of these regulations: cancer sufferers being denied radiotherapy and an operation, pregnant women refused antenatal care then forced to give birth at home. They have been a nightmare for health professionals, who have found themselves prevented from treating sick people.

These people are here lawfully and they have made themselves known to the authorities by seeking asylum. We hope this ruling will put an end to the practice of preventing vulnerable, ill people from getting the treatment they need.’

However, despite this positive decision, the campaign to prevent further restrictions to healthcare – being led my MedAct, and supported by STAR and MedSin among others – continues, with MedAct currently calling on healthcare professionals and those who support asylum seekers to submit case studies to further their campaign work. More info about the campaign to Defend Primary Healthcare is available here

or at the MedSin website and the MedAct website

The London Citizens put 4 campaigns to Ken, Boris, Sian Berry and Brian Paddick; topics which had emerged as the main issues of concern for the people of London after an extensive , London wide listening campaign in 2007. These were ‘A safer city’, ‘A fairer city’ ( which includes the Living Wage campaign ), ‘A better housed London’ and ‘A more welcoming London’. Key to the campaign for a more welcoming London was a call for an earned regularisation for asylum seekers: a process to turn ‘Strangers into Citizens’. The communities of London demanded the Mayoral candidates agree to a number of proposals including a promise to provide travel cards or vouchers for refused asylum seekers to travel to the UK Border Agency (UKBA) offices when necessary, to encourage the Metropolitan Police to not cooperate with dawn raids, and for the potential mayors to vow to use their political clout when in office to push the government to implement regularisation as official government policy.

All in all, the candidates were extremely responsive and gave a resounding yes! to all the demands put to them. Only Boris stressed some reservations to the proposals, stating that he had no power as mayor to stop the police performing their job, mean ing non-compliance with dawn raids would be out of the question.

Whoever gets voted in the rights of asylum seekers look set to remain on the agenda whilst London Citizens are at work. Watch this space to see what happens next.

The IAC Commissioners heard evidence from citizens across the UK, investigating ‘How we decide who needs sanctuary’, ‘How we treat those seeking sanctuary’ and ‘What happens when we refuse people seeking sanctuary’.

The work – and findings – of the commission has created considerable public and political interest, making the report launch a highly anticipated day and receiving positive coverage on BBC Breakfast, Today and on local news among others.

Despite efforts by the Border and Immigration Agency to deal with asylum claims in a more effective manner a ‘culture of disbelief’ still pervades the decision making process resulting in unjust decisions against vulnerable people with limited access to legal advice. The commissioners also found that the detention of asylum seekers is over-used, oppressive and an unnecessary burden on the taxpayer and that the needs of especially vulnerable people seeking sanctuary such as women, children and torture survivors are not properly addressed. The findings also present a system where the enforced destitution of thousands of refused asylum seekers is indefensible and places a ‘shameful blemish on our nation’s proud recode of providing for those who come here in search of sanctuary’.

The IAC will publish its final conclusions in May, June and July. A pdf version of the IAC report and more information about the IAC is available from the IAC website

An article on the report in the Independent newspaper

And leading on from the publication of the report, STAR has teamed up with the IAC to create eleven fantastic volunteering opportunities for students who are passionate about campaigning for the rights of refugees.

A STAR Key Campaigner will be based in each of the 9 English Government Regions, Scotland and Wales. They will be provided with extensive campaigning training and ongoing support to campaign effectively and locally on refugee issues. In addition to forming a unique national network of highly skilled STAR campaigners, Key Campaigners will also form part of the IAC’s Regional Campaign Action Teams. The role will be kicked off with some in depth training in May. More info about the role and how to apply can be found by following the link below

STAR_and_IAC_Key_Campaigners.doc

The sleep-out concluded an evening of campaigning events which began on Cornmarket Street at 5pm with dance, poetry and music performances from local artists. We heard speakers from STAR and local charities Refugee Resource and Asylum Welcome and refugees spoke about their own personal experiences of destitution. At 7pm, a cardboard stage was set out in the street and people gathered round to see a student performance of The Bogus Woman, a powerful play which traces the story of a woman seeking asylum in the UK.

At 8.30, the people participating in the sleep-out were invited into the church for a buffet supper made up of donations from local shops and cafes. The response from local businesses was amazing; we had everything from soup and salad to donuts, bagels and baguettes. It was a chance for people from different background to get to know each other and discuss their involvement in the campaign and the warm food was just what people needed before bedding down for a long, cold night.

After supper, Amanda from Refugee Resource led a People’s Commission on behalf of the Independent Asylum Commission inside, giving people the opportunity to discuss issues related to the campaign, whilst the churchyard was a stage for debate, music and badge making. Some people put pen to patch to add their message to a campaign quilt whilst others wrote their campaign aims on cards which were tied to a colourful ‘wish tree’ by the church entrance.

At twelve o’clock, a candle lit vigil and 2 minutes silence were held to remember refugees around the world. This time for reflection followed the projection of the Still Human Still Here DVD on a cardboard screen held up against the church wall .An eerie silence descended upon the crowd as stories of destitute asylum seekers mingled with background noise of traffic and drunken laughter and echoed from the churchyard across the city centre.

Whilst some stood at the gates collecting petition signatures and engaging in debate with passers by, others tried to get comfortable on the cardboard and snuggle down for the night. Laying there shaking with my sleeping bag pulled tightly over my head I could hear nothing but muffled shouts and raucous singing from people returning home after a night out on the town. Unable to make sense of all the noise I felt scared and confused. I wondered how on earth it must it feel for a destitute asylum seeker sleeping rough on our streets. Unable to understand the meaning of the cries, a stranger to the late-night pub and club culture of our country, how would all this sound?

At 6.30am, when the BBC Oxford radio van pulled up to interview campaigners, people were just waking. The journalist described the scene as overwhelming; dozens of heads popping up from behind gravestones in the morning mist with banners blowing in the trees.

The first sight I encountered as I raised my own head was a banner swinging in the trees reading: ‘The right to shelter, food, employment, life…for destitute asylum seekers’. I thought about the breakfast I was about to eat and the lecture I would resentfully attend that morning and the true importance of this campaign hit me, sharp and painful like the cold morning wind upon my face.

Jenny Allsop,

Oxford STAR

In London, morning shoppers in Covent Garden were greeted by the yawns of over 70 STAR and Amnesty members, whilst in Oxford city centre over 125 students woke up next to graves having spent the night in a churchyard after an action packed evening of street performances, ‘people’s commissions’ and a host of other events. From capoeira in Warwick, Samba in Sussex, a panel event in Essex and speaker events in Exeter and Sheffield, not to mention 28 hours of events in Leeds the sleepouts were preceded by loads of eye catching activities. Awesome and energetic efforts from STAR groups in cities such as Cardiff, Bristol and Southampton meant that there was much photocopying of extra petition sheets as groups across the UK gathered loads of signatures to be presented to the Home Secretary in May.

To capitalize on your amazing successes on Action Day a final Still Human Still Here campaign action will take place in May. Be sure to keep checking out the STAR website to find out more.

This year STAR have teamed up with Amnesty International UK to hold a series of mass sleepouts across the country in support of the Still Human Still Here campaign that is dedicated to ending the forced destitution of refused asylum seekers. Click here for more information on why we are campaigning about this issue.

There are about 40 groups across the country who are holding events on 5th March in support of the campaign; below are some examples of what they’ve got planned!

Oxford STAR have teamed up with Asylum Welcome to hold a huge event in the centre of Oxford. Their sleepout has been confirmed as taking place in the Church Yard on the main street in Oxford where they are estimating there will be approximately 100 participants!!

Warwick STAR have teamed up with Warwick Amnesty along with People and Planet, the Hindu Society, the Islamic Society, the Christian Union and the drumming society. They are planning on having music and speakers at the event as well. The Coventry Observer has also shown an interest in running a post-event report!

In London STAR and Amnesty groups from LSE, KCL, SOAS, Imperial and UCL are joining together for one mega event at St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden. The event will be starting at about 6 pm and with such a fantastic location there should be lots of interest. Click here to visit the Facebook event page.

Sussex STAR have big plans for their first sleepout… They are starting with a Question Time style event with guest speakers at 7pm followed by food and samba! Then to round the night off, a night’s sleep on the grass! Click here for their Facebook event page.

Southampton STAR and Southampton Amnesty are teaming up with Engineers Without Borders to hold their sleepout on 7th March.

Sheffield STAR, Sheffield Amnesty and Sheffield Hallam Amnesty are all teaming up to have a mammoth 24 hours of events including a stall in the city centre during the day and a sleepout in the evening.

Leeds STAR are also having a bumper 24 hour Action Day and are teaming up with students from Amnesty, Medsin, Crossing Borders and Leeds No Borders. They also have one intrepid student reporter who is hoping to get involved. In the week running up to Action Day they will also be holding a Journey to Safety session, a performance of the Asylum Monologues and some will be spending the week living as destitute asylum seekers. Not only this but they also have a double page spread in the student newspaper to report on all of this!

Members from Glasgow STAR spent the week of the 11th February living as destitute asylum seekers and are working closely with Glasgow Amnesty to hold their sleepout on the 5th at the Kelvingrove Museum.

Essex STAR will be holding their sleepout on campus on 6th March.

There are plenty more events taking place in Bristol, Hull, Cambridge, Bath, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Leicester, Newcastle, Plymouth, Exeter and Cardiff to name just a few!

Here’s to a fantastic National Action Day 2008!

In November 2006, Amnesty International and Refugee Action launched reports highlighting how UK Government policy on refused asylum seekers forces many into abject poverty in attempt to drive them out of the country. Research showed that there are tens of thousands of refused asylum seekers in the UK, living a hand to mouth existence, reliant on charity and not permitted to work. Many of them cannot be returned to their country of origin through no fault of their own and are living a life that relies primarily on the charity of others.

Find out more about why many refused asylum seekers are still here
Read the report by Refugee Action, The Destitution Trap
Read the report by Amnesty International, Down and Out in London

What is the Campaign calling for?

The Still Human Still Here campaign is dedicated to highlighting the plight of tens of thousands of refused asylum seekers who are being forced into abject poverty in an attempt to drive them out of the country.

Campaign supporters are calling on the Government to:

• End the threat and use of destitution as a tool of Government policy against refused asylum seekers

• Continue financial support and accommodation to refused asylum seekers as provided during the asylum process and grant permission to work until such a time as they have left the UK or have been granted leave to remain

• Continue to provide full access to health care and education throughout the same period*

Key messages of the campaign

• Over 280,000 people are living in abject poverty in the UK simply because they have been refused asylum; they are not permitted to work and they no longer receive any financial support.
• Many refused asylum seekers have protection needs but have been failed by the asylum system. The policy of starving people into returning in these cases (and to countries like Zimbabwe and Iraq) is inhumane and ineffective.
• Last year a committee of MPs concluded it would take between 10 and 18 years to return all refused asylum seekers to their countries of origin at the current rate of removal. The Government cannot afford to remove everyone who has been refused asylum, so it is deliberately making them destitute in order to force them to leave the UK.
• Where individuals cannot be returned safely, through no fault of their own, they should be granted a form of temporary leave that allows them to work and access basic support. This will allow them to contribute to the UK economy and society until they are able to return.

STAR believes that everyone has the right to food, clothing, housing and medical care, regardless of their immigration status. It is morally acceptable for governments to control their borders. It is morally acceptable for governments to return people refused asylum when they do not have protection needs. But we believe that it is morally unacceptable for governments to force people into poverty as the cheapest method of trying to make them leave the UK. The Government has an obligation to allow everyone in the UK to access the basic necessities of life, and people refused asylum are no exception. They are still human, and they are still here.

The experiences of refused asylum seekers

“The barrister got my file in the evening before the tribunal. He didn’t know my name, hadn’t read my case and missed so many papers. I saw my life slipping away through an administrative error.”
22 year-old man from Somalia

“Destitution – it sounds as if people have been put in the bin and are scavenging. It makes me sound like an animal. Perhaps that is what I am now. All I am.”
67 year-old woman from Zimbabwe

“I don’t want to stay in the UK. As soon as it changes at home I am going. But at the moment I cant go back.”
36 year-old man from DRC

“I have no status, no money and no home. Every day I have to go to friends begging for money. Sometimes I sleep in the mosque or spend the whole night in the street. I cover myself with my coat”.
24 year-old man from Zimbabwe

Campaign Supporters

Amnesty International UK, Archbishops Council of the Church of England, Asylum Aid, Asylum Rights Campaign, Asylum Support Appeals Project, Asylum Support and Immigration Resource Team, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Church Action on Poverty, Citizens Advice, Immigration Law Practitioners Association, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, Migrants Resource Centre, Refugee Action, Refugee Council, Refugee Legal Centre, Scottish Refugee Council, Student Action for Refugees (STAR), The Children’s Society, Welsh Refugee Council

What is the Still Human Still Here campaign doing?

• Developing a constructive dialogue with Home Office Ministers and officials offering alternative remedies that the Government can take to avoid destitution
• Highlighting the impact of destitution and lack of access to education, health and other services on refused asylum seekers to decision makers
• Building a groundswell of opinion against destitution through public campaigning activities (through grassroots activities, public endorsement from community organisations, national and local media coverage etc)
• Recruiting high profile and effective communicators as champions for the campaign (such as frontline professionals, sports people, actors, musicians, academics, former asylum seekers)

What the STAR network is doing

• Raising awareness about the campaign with other students through campaign stalls, speaker events, DVD screenings, photo exhibitions…
• Encouraging students to show their support for Still Human Still Here by signing the petition
• Letting their local MP know about the campaign and how they can support it
• Demonstrating solidarity with refused and destitute asylum seekers by holding sleep outs, particularly on March 5th, when STAR and Amnesty students will team up for Student Action Day.

Find out more about student campaigning events and Action Day

• 18 STAR groups who have shown a definite interest in holding a sleepout on 5th March. If you’re one of those groups, what are you waiting for?!
• 40 groups from both STAR and Amnesty definitely planning to have a sleepout. Our target is 50! So those that aren’t organising one yet…. The more the merrier!
• 45 members of the Action Day Facebook group. If you’re involved with Action Day and haven’t yet joined the group go to http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6762838532 to get involved.
• Just 2 posts in the Action Day Facebook group. LSE STAR and SOAS STAR have got the idea and are already sharing and discussing plans for 5th March. Now lets have more people letting each other know what they’re doing!
• 3000 signatures wanted for our Still Human Still Here campaign petition… A petition is a great way of illustrating the support for the campaign. Remember you can start collecting signatures at any events/stalls in the run up to Action Day to get a head-start! After the sleepouts we will be collecting these all in and presenting the petition to the Home Secretary on your behalf. So don’t forget to send them to us.
• 34 days to go until the great day!

Action Day briefing packs have been sent out to all STAR groups. If you are a registered user of the website (as all STAR committee members are) then you can access all the documents included in the briefing online in the Resources section of the website (please contact us if you have trouble logging on).

February will see a second mail out, with more materials such as banners, stickers and leaflets. Resources will be sent out to all those groups taking part in Action Day so make sure you don’t miss out by letting us know of your interest by the 11th February at the latest (the sooner the better!).

Doctors, refugee and healthcare groups are concerned such charges could prevent vulnerable people, including pregnant women and children, from accessing treatment. These policies would place health professionals in the position of contravening professional codes of conduct – to offer care without discrimination.

The health service charity, Medact, along with a number of other organisations including MedSin (the student branch of Medact), Terrence Higgins Trust, The Refugee Council, Medicines Sans Frontieres and Medicines du Monde are currently supporters of the campaign.

A parliamentary meeting to discuss the issue of limiting access to healthcare for vulnerable migrants was held in December, bringing together over 100 people actively concerned with the provision of health services to migrant communities, including campaign groups, MPs, doctors and STAR members. The outcome of the meeting was to take the campaign message to primary care trusts and health service workers across the country, to continue to challenge these measures and to continue lobbying the government on this issue.

STAR also met with Medact in December to discuss the campaign and we are keen to keep in touch with them and stay involved.

What you can do

• Get in touch with the MedSin branch at your Union and start working on this together – for more details visit the MedSin website
• Join the campaign Facebook group
• Encourage people to sign the petition
• Write to your MP to raise awareness and ask them to sign EDM 220
• Let STAR National Office know that you are involved – Email us

What’s next?

The Department of Health and Home Office are expected to make public their plans for introducing changes to healthcare access for people with undetermined immigration status in Parliament in January.
A protest is planned for when the joint review is published and STAR will keep you updated on campaign development
However, the campaign continues to gain momentum as this is an issue that is unlikely to go away

Links

MedSin defend primary healthcare
More info from MedSin
Medact

The series of events and hearings nationwide will offer an opportunity for dialogue concerning how we can begin to open the doors to try and create a better housed, better paid and more just and inclusive society. The events will allow us to hear the voices and stories of people experiencing poverty and homelessness in their own towns and communities and draw out the three most important issues surrounding housing, homelessness and poverty whilst also trying to suggest possible solutions.

Refused asylum seekers and refugees are a demographic of the population who are hit particularly hard by these sorts of issues, as many are forced into abject poverty by the Government in an attempt to drive them out of the country. This is unacceptable and has led to tens of thousands of asylum seekers becoming destitute and living on the streets today.

These events are a great opportunity for you to share the experiences you have had concerning destitution in your local area and represent the problems that asylum seekers face on a day to day basis and prevent them from escaping the constant cycle of destitution and homelessness that they find themselves within. For more information, a list of all the events and who to get in touch with go to the Poverty and Homelessness Action Week homepage.

When were you happiest?

In my whole life? Well if I narrow it down to the past week, then this morning. My husband put on a piece of music that made me laugh. It was “Stand by your Man”.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?

That is difficult, one can only think Nelson Mandela, Noam Chomsky, Emma Ginn…Emma Ginn I think, she is extraordinary. She is part of NCADC (National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns). Without being at all sort of pious, tedious, full of herself, or losing her individuality or sense of humour she has given her life to campaigning for people in detention.

What first drew you to writing about refugees and asylum seekers?

My mother was a refugee from Nazi Germany. She escaped but she had an aunt and an uncle who didn’t, so I grew up with it, knowledge of refugees. But the thing that got me in to it was someone rang me up and asked if I had heard this story about children disappearing? That is the way to get a journalist in to it, offer them a story like that. It was the story that got me in not some great principle, once you get in to it becomes self-perpetuating as people bring you more stories. But I am not as cynical as that, it wasn’t just the stories. I have worked as a teacher, as an agony aunt and always had an affiliation with children, and the idea that children were going missing…

How do you think attitudes towards refugees and asylum seekers have changed in the past 5 years?

I think they have hardened. People don’t care anymore, but they care enough to scapegoat refugees and asylum seekers for everything. I think the most revealing thing I have seen is a map of the human body, used by the Medical Foundation for victims of torture. If you are doing a medical legal report you use them, it is a map of the body, front and back, and you mark torture scars on it. They are horrendous. You use these things in an appeal to prove someone has been tortured and it seems that there is a premium on torture, and to me that seems deeply suspect, why should people have to prove things in that way? Why only torture, why isn’t poverty torture? There seems to be a hierarchy of suffering. I think attitudes have only got worse.

What are the key challenges in securing a government asylum policy that is humane and treats refugees with respect?

I think that first you have to dismantle this idea of making profit from asylum seekers, because one of the things keeping it going are these hugely profitable detention centres. This idea of asylum seekers costing to country so much is rubbish, they cost the country nothing, they put in more than they take out. They don’t get the same benefit as indigenous people, or the same housing, all those distortions that come from the right wing media are all rubbish. You have to get rid of the idea that asylum seekers take up money, or that you can make money out of them. Detention centres are hugely profitable and if you look at the companies that run them they are huge, and they cast predictions of huge profit margins in the future. They reduce people to figures, and in the middle of all this there are people hanging themselves and starving themselves to death. So what do we do? Buy shares I suppose, challenge them.

Why do you think, given that most of us when asked express horror at the situations that refugees have fled, and sympathy for their plight, asylum issues prompt such public hostility and misunderstanding?

Because the immigration system as it has been set up by the Labour party in the last ten years is designed to create a culture of disbelief. The way people’s claims are written up, everything is designed to reject someone. It is not promoted or designed to find out what really happened. They are very quick to disbelieve and very quick to age dispute. Everything is stacked against you getting in. If you are lying or telling the truth it is all stacked against you. So I think public attitudes have got worse because politically there is this culture promoted through everything. And people don’t question it.

What do you think can be done to encourage responsible media coverage of asylum and refugee issues?

I really don’t know, if I knew I would do it. I tear my hair out sometimes. I mean I have been working as a journalist for 30 years and I have contacts, but I know when I phone them they are thinking “oh god, another asylum story”, I know that is what they are thinking. I think it is up to you young people.

Drawing on your work and experiences, if you could make one thing known to the world about what it is like to be a refugee, what would it be?

It would be something about the isolation and the assault on your identity. Because when your identity is under assault, it is almost impossible to function as a human being; you are angry and hurt and lonely and beleaguered and hungry and penniless and angry. To be dispossessed like that.

What top tips would you give to STAR members attempting to improve the position of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK?

Find the arguments. You should get together as a group of clever people and get incontrovertible evidence to challenge these prejudices. Produce all the facts. And then publish it, in whatever way you can. Drop it from helicopters if you have to. Make it really effective agitative propaganda. Just telling the stories doesn’t work any more; people have become inured to suffering. People don’t care and don’t want to listen any more.

If you could single handedly implement one change in UK Asylum Policy what would it be?

Tear up every single law that has been passed and start again! Every bit, I would go back to the refugee convention and rewrite it to include women who have been raped, battered children etc. I would remove this hierarchy of suffering, I mean extreme poverty is a form of torture. Rip it up, go back to the convention, expand it and make everyone stick to it.

Jade has worked as a volunteer at the Refugee Council for the past two and a half years, something that she considers her greatest achievement since her arrival in the United Kingdom “They have given me my life back. I didn’t know there were caring people in the world to fight for refugees. I feel happy when I am here, where people don’t see me as a dirty person, they see me as a human being.” Jade is intensely grateful for the safety and reception that she has received in the UK, “I have met the most wonderful people, ever since I came. Even when I was sent to it was not so bad. The food was good and people looked after us, they took me to see a doctor. In Africa I used to be in and out of prison and I didn’t get that kind of reception. We didn’t get food, the guards used to take it. We slept on the floor. They would pour water on the floor and we would sleep on the wet floor. In Oakington we had beds When I got a letter addressed to Oakington Barracks I was shocked, I didn’t realise I was in prison”.

Despite the loss of her husband, children and country Jade has hopes for the future “I will write some more, but I am getting old, if I could work, work to pay my bills like a citizen, if I could show the British people that I am really grateful for what they have done, I would really love to do that”.

From There to Here is published by Penguin in paperback on November 29, priced at £8.99. To order a copy, visit Penguin or purchase it from the Refugee Council online shop