In an Ibis hotel more than 200 miles away from London’s high court, which will tomorrow consider controversial plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, dozens of asylum seekers from Syria talk of little else.
They say they are terrified of ending up in the east African country. All have recently arrived in the UK and know they are prime targets to be forced on to a plane should judges determine the scheme to be lawful, because they travelled here in small boats and have only been in the UK for a matter of weeks.
The Home Office has not published criteria for who will and will not be selected for removals to Rwanda so everyone in the hotel believes they are at risk of being forced there.
Abdullah (name changed), a 21-year-old Syrian man, says: “In the hotel we are all saying ‘better to kill ourselves than go to Rwanda’.” A recent report from Medical Justice found the threat of Rwanda increased the risk of suicide to those facing with forced removal there.
The Independent has reported on documents obtained by Liberty Investigates, which showed the handful of asylum seekers taken to the plane for the first flight to Rwanda on 14 June, which was ultimately grounded because of legal action, self-harmed, threatened suicide and were put into “pain inducing” restraint after begging not to be deported from the UK.
Abdullah has a bullet lodged in his right thigh from when Syrian government soldiers came to his family’s village and started shooting in 2014. He says he was unable to get hospital treatment as all the hospitals in his area were closed at the time owing to the war.
He later fled to Turkey. “I couldn’t access any medical treatment there and there was a lot of racism against Syrians,” he says.
Eventually he contacted smugglers and asked them to take him to Europe. “They arranged for me to go by plane from Turkey to Libya. The smugglers choose the route; we don’t have a choice.”
Abdullah arrived in Libya on 20 May this year and left on 30 July when he escaped on an overcrowded boat to the island of Lampedusa.
“I was forced to work for the traffickers in Libya,” he says. “I was doing farm work and washing their cars. I tried to escape many times before I succeeded. Until the last time, each time they caught me and beat me. Enslavement by the traffickers in Libya was even worse than life in Syria. The traffickers put out cigarettes and hookah coals on my body.”
After years of walking around with the bullet in his leg he is finally trying to see a doctor. “This bullet causes me problems sitting or trying to run,” he says.
After his escape from Libya and four days on Lampedusa he made his way to Calais. “We lived in tents in parks but the police came and tore up our tents,” he says.
He paid smugglers £1,000 to cross from France to the UK in a small boat. “The prices have dropped a lot,” he says. “It’s like the smugglers have a sale on at the moment.”
He arrived here a few weeks ago. “I’m afraid of the past, the present and the future. I can no longer bear it,” he says.
The conversation returns to Rwanda. “Who do you think is more likely to support the deportation to Rwanda if they are elected – Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak?” he asks. “If the court does not stop the deportations to Rwanda what should we do? Everyone in the hotel would rather die than go there.”
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.
