'My only crime is to look for somewhere safe to live': The struggles faced by UK asylum seekers

• Special Report: Virginia Wairimu from Kenya has been speaking to ITV News Central reporter Raheem Rashid in this extended report about her struggles with the UK's asylum seeker application process

It was back in 2019 when Virginia Wairimu says she was forced on her journey to seek asylum.

She'd been outed as a lesbian in her home country of Kenya and fled, seeking sanctuary and safety in the UK.

The Home Office has since rejected her asylum application twice because it says her evidence is inconsistent, and that she hasn't provided enough evidence for it to believe her life would be in danger were she to return to Kenya.

Virginia, 51, told ITV News Central she fled for her safety: "After trying to hide for a long time, I got into a relationship and we tried to be discreet, but somehow it became public and we were attacked, both me and my partner. Then, after some time, I started getting threats, and then I was attacked in front of my children."

Soon after, she says she escaped.

Speaking of the dream she had when coming to the UK, Virginia said: "I was hoping I'll get a good welcome here. They will accept me and they'll give me safety and I will be able to live a normal life. But it has been very difficult."

Virginia's been stuck in limbo ever since she arrived, living in a home funded by a charity in Birmingham. Her status as a failed asylum seeker means she can't open a bank account, she can't get a job, and she relies on handouts for clothes and regularly uses a food bank.

When asked about what she'd say to the Home Office in response to it saying she can live a safe life in Kenya, Virginia said: "I'll say that's a big lie. Because I was living a very comfortable life. I would not have left my job, my children, my family for anything.

She continued: "My job was very interesting, telling people about Kenya, selling safaris, going to the park. I was actually in a holiday mood, and I was being paid. Why would I come here? To get charity things and go to the food bank? I've never owned second hand clothes, it was only once I came to this country...If Kenya was safe, I would be on the next flight back home."

Virginia says she's struggled with what she calls a brutal asylum application process when she first came to the UK, saying she's paid the price for it ever since.

She told ITV News Central reporter Raheem Rashid: "When I went for my first substantial interview, it was a very difficult period. In fact, I would never want to give such a kind of an interview again. It was very intimidating, very intimate questions, and I was very traumatised.

She added: "Most of the answers I was not able to answer correctly, as expected by the interviewer, because he was asking me about things that I had lived for more than 30 years being told was wrong, evil, and satanic. He wanted me to tell him everything about my life.

"But I remember the interpreter because he was a man. And when I was talking about my partner, it [the interpretations] was different. In my language what you call a partner is different from a friend, but his interpretation was the same thing...and when I read my interview, so many things got mixed in the interpretation as I believe because he was an elderly man, he was not much aware about issues about homosexuality or people who are gay."

Virginia’s a part of a group called Stories of Hope and Home.

It’s for asylum seekers in Birmingham who want to share their stories - both good and bad.

There, one asylum seeker anonymously spoke to ITV News Central, saying the whole application process is dehumanising. 

He said: "This system is very horrible, very, very horrible, and you don't know what's going to happen on the next day.

"After a long journey for the interview, maybe 4 hours, one month later you receive a post to say, okay, your case is going to be refused.

'It's almost like a game,' Immigration lawyer Salman Mirza speaks of his experience with the application process

Speaking of the Home Office's application process, immigration lawyer Salman Mirza, said: "I think it should be more about conversation and about getting to the truth rather than it being as it is now quite adversarial.

"And it's almost like a game where the Home Office is trying to catch people out. And to me, that's not helpful."

When asked about Virginia's case, the Home Office told ITV News Central its longstanding policy is to not comment on individual cases, but that it understands individuals may have faced discrimination or persecution in their home country because of their sexual orientation.

But for refugees like Loraine from Malawi, even if you do eventually get through the system, there are new challenges to face. 

Loraine said: "It was more than difficult. I claimed asylum in 2015. I was only recognised as a refugee in 2022 and within that period I was made homeless and the pandemic also came and I was not on any support."

She continued: "When I got my status, everyone said, 'oh, now she has status, she's fine now.'

Loraine added: "So all the support you had, it drops, and then you are left on your own. Now to navigate the world of work where I wasn't working for so many years. And who will employ you in the first place? Because everyone is looking for experience. You haven't been working for many years. Who writes your reference?"

But while Loraine eventually got through the system, Virginia still hasn’t.

Her rejection means she now has to attend her local immigration reporting centre in Solihull once a month.

There she could be indefinitely detained. She goes in not knowing if she’ll come back out.

Virginia's fears about being deported are highlighted in these statistics from the Home Office, which show that while the number of forced returns steadily fell for twenty years, since 2021, they’ve been on the up - and are now at a four-year high.

ITV News Central spoke to Virginia just before she went in for one of her reporting days. She said: "I'm very depressed and quite scared...Honestly, last night, I didn't sleep, and I really don't sleep because I'm scared that, you know, you won't come out because we have stories of people going to report and then they're detained and then they don't tell you where they're taking you. So every time when I was told that, I was like, probably I'm not going to come back."

Virginia added: "It's a very depressing situation because I feel like I'm very dehumanised, like I'm a criminal. And my only crime is to try to look for somewhere safe to live in."

Nervously waiting outside Sandford House Reporting Centre was her friend Emma.

Emma, from Asylum Matters, said: "This mental toll is going to be there with her, I assume, for the rest of her life.

She added: "I just feel personally that she's gone through enough trauma back home. She's come to this country for safety and then we're putting her through this level of trauma."

When asked what her eventual goal was from this whole process, Virginia said: "I'd like to rebuild my life. I'd like to get my status. I want to have a meaningful life. I want to have a future plan, and probably get love and be loved again...It's makes me feel like I'm less of a human being."

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