Refugees living in the UK are terrified. Please stand with us in solidarity

Living in the UK during the riots has been so scary. You don’t feel like you’re welcome. In these circumstances, it feels like people don’t want to welcome refugees.

You’re scared. You aren’t sure if you’re going to be safe. You could experience harm at any time. You can’t trust what will happen to you if people know you’re a refugee, especially if you look at what is happening at hotels that are accommodating people seeking safety.

It puts a target on people. It isn’t safe anymore. The hotels are meant to be their home, but they are targeted. It affects everyone, not just those in hotels. It affects everyone mentally.

Read more:

• One year on from the riots: The real-world cost of anti-women and anti-refugee politics
• Cut off and uncared for: This is what life is like for asylum seekers in the UK
• Asylum seekers share their dreams for future: ‘I want my children to have a safe life’

You don’t know what people are thinking, what they are organising. The anger is directed at people seeking safety. You don’t know what they will do. The levels of anger and aggression are so scary. In a split second, harm can happen. Harm that can’t be reversed. This is terrifying.

I feel very unsafe, of course. I don’t feel safety at all. I just have to take one day at a time. You don’t want to leave your home. Your freedom ends up being restricted by fear. Being a woman, being Black, being a refugee – I have all these layers. As a woman on the street, you already have these feelings, then you add the other layers, being Black, being a refugee.

It’s a lot to take in. It’s a lot to deal with. The riots have added even more to the list of what I need to be cautious about. My world has become more restricted. My colour, my gender, my immigration status – all of this makes me a target. 

As a starting point, I am always cautious and alert about what is happening around me, to try to make sure I keep myself safe. This takes away the freedom and dignity to enjoy my life, but what can I do? Hopefully one day, this might change. We all need to live a dignified life. 

Psychologically, the feelings of being unsafe are always there. There’s always that feeling of having to prove yourself, work harder, make sure you fit in. I have to prove my worth over and over. I have to try to protect my mental health and wellbeing, to stop those feelings of not being good enough. I always try to make sure I’m well informed and that I can use my knowledge to support myself. I try to tell myself, ‘yes you can do it’.

I try to do lots of positive thinking, because I need to live my life. I can’t stay in depression.

I am lucky because I have my status. But it is still so difficult. The environment for people seeking safety in the UK is so hostile – the policies, the language that is being used to describe us, the riots, the rise of Reform. Changes in policies recently, such as citizenship, makes it feel more difficult and scary – will I ever feel welcome? You’re made to feel like a problem, that you’re causing the UK’s problems.

Seeing Reform’s success in the election last year, and the way they speak about people like me makes me feel so scared and so bad. What is expected from Reform if there are more of them in power?

Imagine you’re making a soup, and you add too much salt or too much chilli, suddenly it becomes too much – you can’t eat it, it’s spoilt for everyone. That’s what is happening to society and our communities – it will become worse for everyone if this hostility and hatred continues. How do we row back from this? I can only hope that things will move in a better direction, so there’s a better world for everyone: where we can all be safe and welcome, that’s all I ask.

Women already face misogyny, disproportionate violence, gender-based violence. This is happening every day. If you add the context of fleeing from your country and the trauma that carries, it is really something to think about . But everyone who is seeking safety in the UK deserves to be treated with compassion and kindness. 

These riots, this hostility, this hatred – it affects us all. No one should be targeted because they were forced to flee their homes and sought safety here. That isn’t right.

I would love the public to speak out and stand in solidarity. There’s so many people out there who care, I know this.  If we all speak out together, to our friends, our family, to our neighbours or colleagues, we can make small ripples of change and together they can create something powerful. This would breed solidarity and a movement of supporting refugees. It could only be a good thing.

The government needs to take action: better policies, ones that lead with compassion and fairness, and that tackle community division and violence such as what we’ve seen in the riots. At the end of the day, we are human beings. Who wants to live in constant fear all the time? This is creating a whole generation of people who are suffering.

Memory is supported by Women for Refugee Women.

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