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I’ve been waiting half my life in the Home Office backlog [1]
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Date: 2023-09
I read recently that there are now over 175,000 asylum cases waiting for a response from the Home Office – a new record. I am one of those 175,000 people. Just a forgotten statistic. Our lives are in limbo while they decide what to do with us.
Immigration lawyers say the system is “fundamentally flawed”, and that delays have been deliberately built into the system. I think they’ve done that to prevent us from calling this country our home. Maybe they believe that it will stop people wanting to come. It won’t. It just dehumanises us as part of the process.
My older brother went missing in Pakistan around five years ago. Soon after, my father gave up his space in the application queue to go back to look for him. He found him, but we haven’t seen either of them since. The best we can do is speak to them on the phone.
Dad’s leaving pulled us out of the queue as well. Since he left, my mum, two of my sisters and I have been on a new asylum claim, and my oldest sister had to make a claim by herself since she was over 18 by then. That’s one reason why processing our application has taken so long. If we ever get our status, we hope our dad and brother can come back through family reunification rules.
A daily struggle
My mother is now effectively the sole parent of four children. It’s a constant struggle for her. Like me, she hasn’t been allowed to work for much of our time here. During those times we lived entirely off the £38 per person per week that we receive from the government as asylum seekers (recently increased to £45 pp/pw). We don’t pay rent or bills because we live in council accommodation, but it’s still hard to live on £225 a week as a family of five.
She recently got the right to work on the shortage occupation list, which gives us some hope for financial independence. She doesn’t receive the weekly payment now that she is working, but we children still do.
My mother’s now a teaching assistant working in a pupil referral unit. She was offered a permanent contract, which would have been great for our family, but once again rules got in the way. She needs something called a ‘share code’ to accept the role. The code is provided by the Home Office in order to verify someone’s right to work, but it’s not given to asylum seekers. So she can’t have the job.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/ive-been-waiting-half-my-life-in-the-home-office-backlog/
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