My family has waited five years for an asylum decision. Here's how it strips your dignity

My family and I have been in the UK for almost six years now. We’re stuck in the asylum process. I arrived in 2018 with my wife and two children. The United Kingdom is a nation of freedom and equality – but as a refugee, you become a second-class human being, no matter how long the process takes, even when the delay is due to the Home Office. It is a disastrously inefficient system.

My daughter was very, young when we arrived – the only thing she remembers is living as a refugee here in England. The constant anxiety, the fear of being separated from her family again, and the feeling that she has no right to the same dignity as others, is the only life she knows.

We came to the UK because of the security situation in our own country. We were targeted for illegal extortion by crime organisations – it was very dangerous. The government there doesn’t have a way to protect people.

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We did not come to ask for asylum. At first my idea was to spend a year in the UK until things calmed down back home. But I kept on receiving death threats, so in the middle of 2019 we decided to apply for asylum. I was expecting a fairly quick answer – a process where we would submit the evidence, state our case, and the decision would be made. The government website says the expected response time is six months to one year.

Instead, we spent year after year just waiting for the Home Office to make their decision. Here, in a land that was supposed to offer hope, you find that many basic rights and freedoms are denied. You cannot work, cannot drive, cannot rent a home on your own, and are entirely under the supervision of the Home Office.

We waited four years and four months for my asylum decision. And we have been waiting more than eleven months for the appeal.

The long wait has had a very negative impact on my family. My wife is a doctor and she hasn’t been able to work for all this time, so it has affected her knowledge and skills. My children were young when they arrived, and all this time they’ve been living in a situation that isn’t normal. We all had to sleep together in the same room. They keep asking me – why don’t we have a normal life?

In terms of my mental health, I’ve had lots of issues with anxiety and stress. I’m starting to cope better, but it’s still difficult. My wife was deeply depressed for the first three years, she used to cry constantly, she’s getting better now, but the long wait is making the situation quite unbearable.

We live with constant stress – the Home Office might move us somewhere else at any moment. Despite having lived in the same city for nearly six years now, and put down roots here, the Home Office continually threatens to “disperse” us to another part of the country, and if we refuse, we could be left destitute. It’s very hard for other people to understand unless they’ve been in this situation themselves.

We spent several years staying with relatives, they supported us for a long time, but after a while, they couldn’t support us anymore, and that’s when we moved into this hotel. We have to travel an hour and a half to take the kids to school, but we don’t want to move them because they are settled there now. For many years, with our relatives, we were all four of us sharing one bedroom, we have two rooms now.

The hotel is for refugees, and there are lots of people coming in and out. There’s not much to do, and it’s very unsettling, I worry about something happening – there have been incidents at the hotel, it doesn’t feel safe, especially for my wife and children. When we heard about the arson and attacks on asylum hotels, we were panicking.

I think the main issue is that as time goes by you start feeling degraded and humiliated. You don’t have any of the basic rights of other citizens.

A big problem is the food, and we are not even allowed to cook for ourselves. The meals are not healthy and my children don’t like them – a friend gave us a small air fryer, so we could cook scrambled eggs, a small chicken, or other things for ourselves. However, there was a room inspection, more than five people from the accommodation provider entered our room along with security personnel, and it was confiscated. We felt helpless and humiliated, as if we were being treated like criminals.

Some policies have no common sense. There’s also a huge cost to the public as a result of the delays. You have voters who are not aware that they’re voting against their own interests.

I believe the UK is a great nation with incredible values. If we manage to find freedom here, I believe we can contribute to the country, my wife as a doctor and myself as an entrepreneur. I would like to give back to this country.

My brother also had to flee our country. We came to the UK because my wife has family here, his wife had family in the States so he went there. In the USA while you claim asylum you can work, you can drive, you can rent a property and pay taxes, and all of that has an impact with the judge when your decision is made. In this country everything is taken away, all your human rights are taken away, which is completely against all the UK’s values.

We received a lot of support from the Refugee Council, they’re doing a great job. They have helped with money on occasion, they helped me buy school uniform for my children, they have helped me to once in a while buy an ice-cream for my children, which I couldn’t do with the £8 a week we have to live on. They gave us advice and helped us access food banks. For our own mental health, it’s wonderful to know that there’s at least someone who cares and wants to help.

People shouldn’t be misled into believing that the problems in this country are due to immigrants or refugees. It’s important to try to find real solutions to the problems, that are also humane. I believe the United Kingdom, with its long tradition of respecting human rights, has the opportunity to ensure that all who seek refuge here can do so in conditions which reflect the values of humanity and dignity we all share.

Miguel* is originally from South America and has been supported by the Refugee Council.

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