London, Jan 5 (AFP\/APP):At just 23, Hayat fears her long quest for a new life in Britain will come to nothing and she will be sent to Rwanda.
\nThe Eritrean woman travelled through several countries before crossing from France to the UK in a flimsy boat, hoping to find safety.<\/p>\n
But now she has a new fear: the UK government’s plan to fly out all the immigrants who like her arrived illegally with a one-way ticket to Rwanda in central Africa.<\/p>\n
The woman, who asked for her first name to be changed, spends her days in or near the London hotel where she is staying.<\/p>\n
She arrived in the UK in a small boat from France in July 2021.
\nWhile applying for asylum, she has no right to work and lacks money to travel around the city, where she has no relatives.<\/p>\n
“I wait now for the second interview” over the asylum application, she explains in hesitant English, sitting in a park in east London.
\n“Every day I wait for new day and new life. But it doesn’t come… For refugees, there is no future.”<\/p>\n
Hayat left Eritrea in northeast Africa in 2016 when she was just 16.
\n“I have big problem with the government,” she says.<\/p>\n
Hayat had to leave school early to earn money for her family, but soon afterwards she received a letter calling her up to join the army and decided to leave.<\/p>\n
“I want to finish school, not go to soldier,” she recalls.
\nHer long journey was just beginning.<\/p>\n
“I go to Sudan in foot. Difficult way. I live in Sudan four months, then Egypt by small car, Italy by boat. Fifteen days in the sea.”<\/p>\n
She spent five years in Switzerland, where authorities twice rejected her asylum claim, and then travelled to France, she says.
\n“I see a lot of people come here in UK,” she says, with hopes of gaining “papers and a new life”.<\/p>\n
“I try. I don’t know what happen.”<\/p>\n
Hayat waited two months in the French port of Calais to cross the Channel.
\n“In France no food, no place to sleep. I slept in a park,” she says. Then she attempted her first crossing in an inflatable boat.<\/p>\n
She recalls a “lot of problem in the sea” with fuel leaking into the plastic boat along with seawater.<\/p>\n
Eventually, the migrants were picked up by French rescuers.
\nHayat says she spent eight days in hospital before trying a second time.<\/p>\n
Once more, she travelled in “a small boat with a lot of people” after paying 500 euros (around $530). And this time she was successful.<\/p>\n
– ‘Finished for me’ –<\/p>\n
This gruelling journey has become the standard route into the UK for migrants lacking visas. Last year a record of more than 45,000 made the crossing.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak presented a five-point list of promises for 2023, including a pledge to “stop the boats”.<\/p>\n
“We will pass new laws to stop small boats, making sure that if you come to this country illegally, you are detained and swiftly removed,” he said.<\/p>\n
The UK government has signed a deal with Rwanda to fly illegal arrivals there before their asylum claims are even considered.<\/p>\n
If eventually granted refuge, they will remain in Rwanda rather than return to the UK.<\/p>\n
No one has been flown out yet, but in December the High Court in London ruled the plan was lawful following a legal challenge by migrants and campaigners.<\/p>\n
This prospect is in the minds of all asylum seekers such as Hayat.
\n“When I think about Rwanda, I cannot sleep in the night because I have had a lot of problems in my life before and now comes a new problem.”<\/p>\n
She has found a kind of stability. For the last year and a half she has lived in the same hotel, which is clean and in an area she likes.<\/p>\n
“The government does a lot of things. The food. Hotels. Doctors. Money. 40 pounds a week,” she says.<\/p>\n
Now she fears being sent to “a new country. I don’t think it’s a safe country”.<\/p>\n
Asked if she would have made the trip if she had known she risked ending up in Rwanda, she exclaims: “It’s better to live in park in France for me, better than go to Rwanda.”<\/p>\n
“Now I’m tired”, she says. “I think no, no come to the UK.”
\n“I think it is finished for me.”<\/p>\n
Asked what she would do if the British government decides to send her to Rwanda, she says: “When I think this, I cannot take (in) oxygen. I think oxygen stops.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London, Jan 5 (AFP\/APP):At just 23, Hayat fears her long quest for a new life in Britain will come to nothing and she will be sent to Rwanda. The Eritrean woman travelled through several countries before crossing from France to the UK in a flimsy […]<\/p>\n
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