10 SEPTEMBER 2024
Kinan is a Syrian refugee who came to the UK as an asylum seeker in 2020. “And I was placed in one of the military camps, Penally Camp in Wales,” he tells us. Conditions in the camp were grim. “Along with other asylum seekers, we started an association inside the camp. We called ourselves CROP, which stands for Camp Residents Of Penally.”
The asylum seekers in Penally were able to connect with supportive locals who helped them organise English classes, art classes, and activities, outings, and volunteer work around the area. Above all, they wanted to get out of the camp, and they campaigned to get it closed. “We reached out to people who ran charities for refugees and asylum seekers, and they linked us to groups in Parliament,” Kinan says. CROP helped gather evidence for the Home Affairs Select Committee, and also for the APPG on Immigration Detention.
“The information given to MPs by the Home Office was not accurate,” Kinan believes. “We tried to highlight the errors and give some personal experiences. It wasn’t only about the bad condition of the camp, it was about the impact on the mental health of people who had trauma from prison, or detention, or from being in a camp before.”
The mental health impacts were worsened by far-right elements who were drawn to the camp. “As soon as we arrived, we had a very bad experience with the far-right people. They blocked the bus from entering the camp. And then we saw them protesting every day in front of the gates.” Some nights, far-right demonstrators were setting off fireworks outside, sounding their car horns, and shining lasers at the windows of the camp huts.
Staff at the camp could have done more to protect the asylum seekers, Kinan believes. “The camp had several gates, but asylum seekers were allowed only to use one, while the staff could use other gates,” he explains. “The far-right people were always at that main gate. I didn’t want to have to walk through them, or for them to take pictures of me.”
When the Home Office started using military camps in September 2020, they began with two, Penally in West Wales, and Napier Barracks in Folkestone, Kent. Penally closed after six months. “But Napier is still in use,” Kinan points out. “The Home Office keeps sending people to Napier, and the far right keep going there, and asylum seekers still suffer the same conditions.”
Penally Army Training Camp in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. During the Covid pandemic, the camp was used to house asylum seekers, but was closed after six months. Photo: Syria Notes.
The Election
At the time when Penally Camp residents were in contact with the Home Affairs Select Committee, its chair was Labour MP Yvette Cooper. Kinan remembers both her and Stuart McDonald, a Scottish National Party MP, as very well informed. “They attended Zoom meetings with us, and she had a good knowledge of the whole system,” he says. “I saw them both asking asylum seekers to give feedback, which is something the Home Office never did.” The committee included Conservative MPs, but Kinan doesn’t remember any of them ever attending the Zoom calls.
With Labour’s election victory, Yvette Cooper has become Home Secretary. Kinan would have liked to have voted. “I couldn’t vote. I work hard, I pay taxes, but I couldn’t vote. In Wales, refugees can vote in Senedd elections, but we can’t vote in general elections.”
After the closure of Penally camp, the CROP team formed a charity. “We called ourselves Life Seekers Aid. We’re a grassroots charity led and run by refugees and asylum seekers, and we aim to help people navigate the asylum process, and to assist and advise when it’s possible.”
Life Seekers Aid runs a weekly drop-in for asylum seekers in east London. Some have been stuck in the system a very long time. “Since the election, we see the Home Office giving them appointments,” Kinan tells us. “Also, people who missed appointments recently, some because of the riots, the Home Office has been writing, suggesting alternative appointments for their substantive interview. I haven’t seen this before, ever.” Even the tone of the letters is now different, Kinan feels, describing them as kind and considerate.
MPs sometimes write on behalf of asylum seekers in their constituency, and the Home Office used to be very slow to write back, delaying until a reminder was sent, and then only issuing a standard reply. “Now we have seen MPs get positive responses, appointments being arranged, and people being moved upon request. So I feel there is a change.” And at the end of this process, they’re seeing positive decisions, with a lot of asylum seekers being granted refugee status. “I hope it will continue.” Kinan concludes.
The asylum seekers that Kinan meets at the drop in are all staying in hotels and hostels. “But the hotels now are like hostels,” he says. “There are bunk beds, and more people in each room. One place in Whitechapel has maybe three or four hundred people in the building, with six or seven in each room, and the situation is dreadful.”
However, the turnover of people housed there is now faster, Kinan says. Faster turnover suggests that more interviews are being done, and the backlog is being cleared. Kinan places blame for that backlog squarely on the previous government’s policies.
“The Rwanda plan was a scandal — Rwanda is not safe to send asylum seekers to,” Kinan declares. “For example, the LGBT community in particular would not be safe.” In 2022, Life Seekers Aid was part of the first response by asylum and refugee organisations to contact people detained for removal to Rwanda and connect them with lawyers.
“Initially, they sent letters to new arrivals, saying ‘You will be moved to Rwanda,’ and then they began detaining them” Kinan remembers. “Our first client from the Rwanda plan was an asylum seeker who had just arrived in the country when he was detained and told that he would be sent to Rwanda. With a huge effort, lawyers managed to challenge this.”
But instead of waiting for the courts to rule on the policy, the Home Office kept sending ‘intent to remove to Rwanda’ letters. “So many thousands,” Kinan says. “I would like to know how many letters the Home Office issued. People were badly affected.” The letters told people that the Home Office considered their asylum claims to be inadmissible, and they wouldn’t be processed. “People were put on hold, not for a few weeks but for two years, living in limbo, not knowing what would happen to them.”
In short, the Home Office created this backlog, Kinan says. “It used to be possible to find free legal aid solicitors. Now, with the system overwhelmed by cases not being processed, many newly-arrived people have no solicitor.” As Kinan sees Home Office failure as the cause of the problem, he thinks it should have a duty to provide solicitors. “Or it should accept their cases quickly, because they have suffered a lot.”
There is also a great need for a really effective way to refer people for mental health support, Kinan says. These people have been caught in a British political conflict which they had nothing to do with, he argues. “If you escaped from a war zone or from persecution, the last thing you want is to be part of this. And they are the only victims of this conflict, so we need to help them. Mental health is a priority. Legal aid also is a priority.”
The Riots
The recent riots in the UK reminded Kinan of his earlier encounters with the far-right. “I have seen that the far right are a minority, and that the majority are very kind and supportive, and want us to live in peace,” he says. “But it was the far-right people who we saw every day, and they caused us all this anxiety and depression and fear.”
The violence of the far right could be clearly seen by anyone, even if they didn’t speak the language, Kinan says. “So our advice to people was stay safe, stay indoors when it’s possible, try not to engage because that will create more conflict.” This experience can lead to more problems for asylum seekers, he fears, for their mental health and also for their eventual integration.
“It requires explaining to asylum seekers that those people are only a minority, because as soon as they get their status they have to be a part of this society, and they need to understand their role in society, and how to respond to such things. They need to feel safe so they can reflect safeness around them. You don’t want them to be anxious, depressed, angry, feeling betrayed, or feeling unwelcome.”
The many demonstrations of solidarity that Kinan has seen ever since his time in Penally Camp are the reason why he and many others haven’t given up, he says. But he is concerned about the risks in standing against the far right. “So even when I saw very nice pictures being shared from solidarity groups, I feel worried about the outcome.”
Kinan recalls a time when he took part in a solidarity demonstration with asylum seekers in front of Napier Barracks. “A far right group turned up,” he remembers. “I didn’t feel scared to stand against them, talk to them, negotiate with them, but now I don’t feel that would be possible.” He wouldn’t feel safe, he explains. “Those people have been affected by very radical ideas, from Reform UK, and in particular from Nigel Farage. We have seen a lot of people affected by their ideologies being arrested. You should be accountable for your words and your actions in public, especially if you are an MP.”
More to do
So far, the new Government is delivering what they promised, Kinan believes. “They promised that the Rwanda plan would be cancelled, and that was done. And they decided to stop using the barge accommodation, Bibby Stockholm, but not immediately, which is a shame because maybe a thousand people will be affected from now to the end of the year. A few of our clients have already been moved to Bibby Stockholm under this new Government.”
Kinan is also disappointed not to hear anything from the Government about Napier Barracks. And since July last year, the Government has been using another former military site at Wethersfield to house asylum seekers.
“The information from Wethersfield, it’s not saying anything good,” Kinan tells us. “It is a challenge for everyone, the local society, the NGOs trying to reach the asylum seekers, the doctors trying to help them. The people inside feel like they are in a prison, even though they are free to move. The Home Office have to take a decision to stop using prison-like accommodation, and the key is to process claims — it is very simple.”
Asylum seekers are not allowed to earn money, which makes them the responsibility of the Home Office and the taxpayers, Kinan points out. “And then angry people from the far right say, ‘Oh, we are spending our tax money on them.’ But as soon as these people’s claims are processed, with a little help, they can stand on their feet and start building their lives,” he argues.
“In return they will help society in many ways. They will pay tax, will help to build the society, and will be part of it. I feel that I owe this society a lot, and any refugee will have the same idea, and more so if they find positive decision-making from the government and more of a welcome from society.”
Yvette Cooper recently announced that the Government intends over the next six months “to achieve the highest rate of removals of those with no right to be here, including failed asylum seekers, for five years.” (In 2018 there were 9,474 enforced returns, compared to 6,393 enforced returns in 2023.)
Kinan doesn’t object to removals in principle. “Give each asylum seeker the right to legal aid, the right to appeal a decision, and enough time to appeal. Then, if they have exhausted all their rights, if the judge decided they don’t have a right to be protected, and the appeal decisions are also negative, then yeah, maybe they have to do a removal,” he says.
“But I don’t want to support it when a vulnerable person failed to get legal representation, or they couldn’t appeal, or they were manipulated by others to withdraw their claim. Before taking a decision, review their file, give them a proper chance through legal channels.”
Kinan has worked inside immigration removal centres. “And I have seen a Portuguese person, an American, a Canadian claiming asylum to stop deportation,” he says. “I don’t think asylum should be used to stop a deportation of someone who is not in need of protection.” But most of the people Kinan saw there were vulnerable, often not able to speak the language, and not able to understand the system.
“There is a reason why they are unable to help themselves, why they didn’t get their status. It could be a mental health problem, a learning difficulty, or trauma. It could be that they were misled by other people. So these cases, you need to review them carefully before just detaining them for removal.” He fears that many of those affected by the Home Secretary’s target will be the most vulnerable. “I met many people who really deserve to be protected — you need to listen to them.”
Syrians are still fleeing
Thirteen years after the revolution, Syrians keep coming. “I wonder if there is a single Syrian left back home,” Kinan says. “Now with Gaza, the whole area is about to explode again, in Lebanon, in Iran, and Syria is in the middle. It’s involved in many ways, and Syrians will be affected. Definitely.”
Syrians are still fleeing to Europe and the UK because no part of Syria offers safety, and because those countries neighbouring Syria where millions sought refuge are now also unsafe. Syrians in Lebanon and in Turkey face increasing hostility, and forced returns. Turkey also experienced riots recently, and Syrians there feel very threatened. These are people who sought refuge in the first country they arrived to, Kinan points out. They worked hard to support themselves there, but now many are leaving for Europe.
“I think this is one of the responsibilities of MPs, of the UK Government, to apply some influence on countries like Turkey, or Lebanon, or Egypt,” Kinan argues. “If people were safe there, fewer would come here. But if someone lived for nine or ten years in another country, and recently came here because of the anti-refugee or anti-Syrian policies in that country, then yes, they are a victim and they need to be protected.”
Refugees are desperate to have roots, he believes. “If they move, that means the situation is beyond their control. They can’t feel safe, they can’t see a future for their family. We can do a lot to change this.”
People are also fleeing directly from Syria, particularly from southern Syria, Kinan says. A lot of the arrivals from southern Syria have come via Libya, which means they risked death on two sea crossings to get to the UK, first across the Mediterranean, and then across the English Channel. “There is no safe route,” Kinan points out. Resettlement and community sponsorship schemes used to offer hope for thousands of Syrians, but these schemes now only bring a few hundred people to safety each year.
“With the lack of safety where they are, and the lack of safe routes, people will continue risking their lives, crossing seas and crossing borders until they will find somewher they think is safe and they claim asylum,” Kinan argues. “But there are a lot of things you can do to protect people overseas in the long term — and in the short term, to stop the channel crossings we need to have a safe route for asylum seekers to go through, and not force them to get in a boat and cross the Mediterranean or the English Channel.”
As well as looking to make refugees safer in Turkey and Lebanon, Kinan believes the UK should do more to keep people safe inside Syria, investing in schools, hospitals and infrastructure in areas outside regime control, for example, but also taking action to stop regime attacks on those areas.
A big portions of Syria is ulimately under the military control of the UK’s allies, Turkey in the north, and the US-led Coalition in the east. “What development have they done there? Where is there a safe place for people to stay there?” Kinan asks. And it’s not just a question of economics. Both Turkey and the US-led Coalition work through local client militias, and so local accountability is sacrificed to military expediency.
Under current conditions, Kinan fears a resurgence of extremism in Syria. “And when an explosion comes, they will wonder why,” he says. “After just dumping people for years, with the situation getting worse and worse.”
Life Seekers Aid website: http://www.lifeseekers.org/