Refugee and Asylum Seekers Advocacy - People we have Helped

Case Studies

Mrs Fatima
Inequitable furnishing charge
Amir
Nasser
Chase and Jessica

Please note that RASA rspects the privacy of all our clients. We have changed the names of the clients in these case studies

Case study 1 – Mrs. Fatima

After coming to the UK in 2002, Mrs Fatima lived with her husband and two children. In July 2005, her husband started an affair with another woman. He began to stay out, not coming home.

All the money including child benefit was going to her husband’s account. He begun to pay less house keeping money and when she protested, he beat her. After several weeks, the situation became unbearable, but she did not know what she should do. She confided in a close family friend who had been helped by RASA.

An appointment was made for her to come to RASA, so she could explain the situation. She was very distressed at the appointment and broke down in tears.
It was a very difficult interview and stressful for all concerned. RASA obtained Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit Forms and filled them in on her behalf and sent them to the benefits agencies.

RASA made an appointment for her to visit her GP, accompanied her to the surgery, and explained the situation. Mrs Fatima was unable to speak sufficient English, so RASA acted as an interpreter. With RASA’s help she obtained specialist counselling for herself and her daughter.

When her husband found out what was happening he became very violent. The police arrested him and removed him from the home. Early next morning Mrs Fatima came to RASA fearing that she would be beaten again when he was released. RASA took her to the Homelessness Unit and helped her obtain emergency accommodation the same day. After a few weeks, she was given her own accommodation.

The next day RASA made an appointment to accompany Mrs Fatima to a solicitor to obtain an order to prevent her husband from taking the children away from her. RASA supported her at the many interviews that were held with the solicitors. RASA attended County Court with her in September 2005 to obtain sole parental responsibility.

Now Mrs Fatima is in a safe and suitable environment, she is financially secure and happy.

Case study 2 – Inequitable furnishing charge

Prior to 2005, all refugees that became tenants of the Wakefield District Housing (WDH) were subject to a charge for the furnishing of the property which they were provided. Refugees were not permitted to opt out of this fee, and all properties were provided furnished. Commonly these furnishings were sub-standard, often of ill-repair. It was also unclear as to who was responsible for renewing the furnishings and the tenants themselves prohibited from changing the furnishings. The weekly charge of £16.47 was extremely high for such small substances: it was, at that time, greater than the weekly Child Benefit Allowance and represented a significant outgoing to the family budgets of many refugees.

RASA began its campaign to scrap the charge in February 2004. RASA raised this issue with the then Head of Housing, Kevin Dodd (now Cheif Executive of Wakefield and District Housing) and a committee was formed to address this issue. With the support of the Head of Housing and Wakefield Asylum Seeker Unit Team, we succeeded in scrapping the inequitable furniture charges for refugees.

Case Study 3 – Amir

Amir fell in love with a Kurdish woman. The Kurds are a minority ethnic group in Iran and are subject to a great deal of violence and discrimination. This forced Amir to run away from Iran to save his life. Luckily his case was well documented and he was quickly granted refugee status in the UK. Eventually Amir managed to reunite his whole family in a small village just south of Wakefield, in a housing association property.

Sadly, local youths began to harass and abuse Amir and his children. He called the police, but the youths were too young, or there was too little evidence. This goes on for a couple of months – the younger kids start trouble, and older ones waited to attack Amir if he tried to help his children. Eventually Amir was beaten so badly he ended up in hospital, and one of his attackers was imprisoned for six months. The attacks are then stepped up in retribution for this, and then when the man is released from prison it gets even worse.

The Police didn’t seem to be able to do anything (due to language difficulties the reasons for this are not entirely clear). The housing association said they had no better properties for the family to move to. The local authority’s Asylum Team were unable to help because their contract only allowed them to support people they also provided accommodation for. There were additional complications because Amir was a refugee but his wife and sons were officially asylum seekers. The family’s life was a nightmare, and nothing Amir did to try to help the situation made any difference for over a year.

Eventually Amir found RASA. We could speak both the family’s languages and understand the problems they were going through. We also already had some experience of racial harassment, though nothing quite as bad. We contacted NASS straight away, gave them some of the recent police crime reference numbers, and arranged for Amir’s wife and children to move to safe emergency accommodation straight away. The next day we went with Amir to the Homeless section of the Council and he was also accepted for emergency accommodation.

It took three months for the family to be reunited again, but RASA was there for them during all this time. We were able to find out what was happening, hurry things along, and keep Amir informed. Sometimes we helped out with other issues that came up along the way. Mostly we were just there for Amir, ready to stand up for him if he needed us – but this was a great relief and it is an important part of Rasa’s role for many people.

Now the whole family have refugee status and are living happily together in a Council House in another village near Wakefield. They no longer suffer racial harassment - for the first time in many years living in Iran and the UK.

Recently Amir opened an event to promote advocacy in Wakefield District by speaking about the support he had received from Rasa.

Case study 4 – Nasser

Nasser is a very skilled carpenter refugee. He was unemployed for one year. He decided to become self employed. In order to do this he informed job centre. According to their advice he took part in a program for six months which was held by Wakefield Business Link. By taking part in this program he became not only familiar with how to become a successful self employed but also he was qualified for a £2000 SRB grant.

After the program he needs to have a business bank account. He went to every bank in Wakefield to open a business account, but no bank accepted his application. He returned to Business Link for help in this matter and discovered that they could not help him with this problem. He was very disappointed, not having a business bank account in spite this fact that he has rented a business premises.

After coming to RASA, Masoud made an appointment with the business department at a local bank. They went together to the branch and Masoud spoke on behalf of Nasser.
The business account was opened at this meeting. Masoud informed Business Link and his file was reopened again. He received his grant at December 2004.

Nasser believes without RASA’s support he never be able to open a business bank account.

Case study 5 - Chase and Jessica

Chase and Jessica are destitute asylum seekers from Zimbabwe and Nigeria. No longer supported by NASS, they are homeless with no income.

Chase has a child who is seven years old. Both Chase and her daughter were evicted from their housing.

They arrived at RASA distraught. With no friends or family, RASA is the only place they can turn to for support. During their interview at RASA both broke down and the interview was extremely difficult for all those involved.

RASA, however, can do little to assist them. The first thing we do was to give them hope: hope that they might be given a positive answer through amnesty. We ask them, however they survive not to be involved in criminal activity. And above all, we stressed they should not be subject to sexual abuse or racial harassment but If anything bad were to happen to them, they can come to RASA for support.

These young, isolated women are extremely vulnerable, yet RASA is the only place to which they can turn for support, the only place where they can find a sympathetic ear.