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Sarah from the all African Women's Group I am Sarah and I come from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I belong to the All African Women’s Group which we formed in 2003 during the time when Section 55 was passed. It stated that if you didn’t claim asylum as soon as you came at an airport, you will not be given any support and that’s how most of us came together. Most of us did not have housing, we didn’t have any support, we didn’t have lawyers, most of the women were rape survivors and were traumatized and there was no one who could hear our voice. So when we came together at the Crossroads Women’s Centre. Why did we form our Group? It is because we just wanted to help ourselves in order for our voices to be heard because no one could listen to us, no one could hear our voices. So when we formed this group, the expectations of the members were that we had to go to speak out about our experiences. So we had to go to public events and we have been moving throughout London to different public events even outside London. In fact that’s why I am here because of certain events that our faces have been high. In fact many women have won their cases, their housing has been reinstated, some of them have been given support and many other issues have been won. This is the campaign we’ve been doing. We have gone to places like the schools. In most cases some of the newspapers give a bad image about asylum seekers. It sounds like, asylum seekers have come here just to take the money. Some of us we do not even get any. Not even from the Refugee Council for instance. I for one, I credit just on friends and maybe the organisation. It is friends who have given me accommodation, the organisation has always organized for me to have transport. Many organisations, local communities have come to our centre, brought clothes and other things and I will talk about them. So when we come here actually is because we fled the wars that happened at home. You know, there is no way you can survive other than by running away. And we make that effort, as Niki has said, you make all that effort, to escape. And when you reach here . . . for example, my case was accepted, everything I suffered all the torture, they accepted that. But the final analysis was, I should go back to a safe place in my old country. Which is not possible because people are dying. So when you come together and when we went to schools and to churches our voices were heard. Children have created a negative view. But the children could not believe what we said, most of them would even cry. They want to give us some help or some money but of course because you can not just get the money from them, they say they want to tell their parents. So this gave us an insight and maybe most of the people out there they do not know what is happened. There are some people who do not know. They just depend on the newspapers but they cannot hear it from the voices of the people. And, people take it for granted that this is the truth. So when we went to churches the Reverends have been able to give us some money, they have been able to help us. You know, we have mothers, in fact one of the ladies here today was one of them, at that time she was fully pregnant, which was bad. She has just come out of detention and we went to the Reverend. The Reverends were able to help us. They gave us money. I for one the church has given me, £200. They heard our voices because of the platform that we have been given as the All African Women’s group and then these people have been able to help us. Coming together has also helped us to have press conferences and through these press conferences a clear picture has been given about asylum seekers and the horrendous situation they go through and many people have responded. They have responded enormously from the whole of England and they have really helped us and they talk so good about us. For the first time since we are here people are now talking good about us. Different from all the “they are taking my money, they are in free houses.” There is no free houses for us. I have told you. I just depend on friends. They give me somewhere to live. So the press has enabled us, you know, to give at least a clear picture about our situation. The press conferences also have helped to bring about a change. As Niki has said Refugee Council is where they always refer us to. I for one was referred to the Refugee Council to get accommodation as they told me. They kept on referring me to another day or a week, second week, every morning out, go there. You might not have money, you are not sure of where you sleep tomorrow and that kind of thing. At that time when I went to Refugee Council they had just brought me from Dover and they brought me to Croydon and that was the end of the story. I did not know anybody in London. I did not know anyone. And you know what it means when you have just come from a place like mine. They tell you to go somewhere. You do not know anywhere and you do not know any bus. You just end up sleeping somewhere maybe. They can not even afford to give you a blanket. And that time it was pure in winter. It was a long September and October and it was becoming cold. I was falling over at the refugee centre but you know nothing could be done. So finally I started to rely on friends. Now the papers have changed a bit. Many women would be sent to places like Eurotower and when they made a noise about it, they wrote in the newspapers and this accommodation was closed and maybe for the first time some of those ladies got a better way of living. And also the Section 55 which came at that time was suspended during that time because many people were just on the streets. They had nothing to eat. They had babies and some of us were alone with no friends, and then you are dead. If you are a mother you need to feed yourself because you need to have milk to feed that baby. It was hard for them but then at least the Section 55 was suspended and some women got accommodation and support. When we come together we do our cases collectively. It is very difficult dealing with people, especially when you come from different backgrounds. There are people who are educated others are not educated. There are people who are ready to be public and others are not. So explaining issues becomes difficult. There are people who come from French speaking countries and it becomes difficult for them to understand what, you know, is being explained. But because of the collectiveness and the self-help that we have, those women who know English help and write out pieces for women who have no English. So it helps us to come together and have the togetherness and we work as a team. We meet every two weeks and when we come together we discuss our cases and we try to patch together pieces here and there. Even if you are an Asylum seeker, when you read your case you can tell: “No, the judge was wrong here. Why did he say this?” In most cases asylum seekers, I am sorry to say, never read their papers and they do not know or understand the situation. But when you piece together things according to what have been written by the adjudicator, you wonder why you were not given that status. For example, my case was accepted. The adjudicator in the final analysis said I should go back to a safe place. You are telling me to go to a more dangerous place. You know, Africa is not like the United Kingdom, where security can be maybe provided in case there is trouble somewhere. What is happening in Africa, in the Congo is that today people sit and eat. Tomorrow they will be on their run in the bush and the forest and everywhere. So you can’t tell somebody go back. |