13 years and still waiting

Last Tuesday “Student Action for Refugees” (STAR) held a variety of events which brought the issues faced by asylum seekers in the UK to the forefront of student discussion.

Winner of the “Best New Society” award 2006, STAR invited guest speaker Afshin Azizian , an Iranian asylum seeker and a visiting International Relations student, who recounted his experience in war-torn Israel and Palestine.

In collaboration with Amnesty International, Warwick STAR focused on their current campaign “Still Here Still Human” which aims to see the end of refugees forced to live in destitution.

Figures suggest that more than 280,000 refused asylum seekers are living destitute in the UK without the human right to food, clothing, housing and medical care. STAR has an increasing network in universities across the UK and has also been focusing on a campaign, “Let them Work!” Since 2002, the UK government has refused almost all asylum seekers the right to employment. On Tuesday, Warwick students were encouraged to sign a petition to put an end to refugee dependence on the government, which currently provides financial assistance at only 70% of income support.

Guest speaker, Afshin Azizian, has spent the last 13 years struggling against the Home Office to claim asylum in the UK. His introduction alone was testimony to the hardship so many refugees suffer. He uses a cover name to conceal his identity for security purposes and he expressed his hate for the term “refugee” saying, “I am just a human being like you.”

Fleeing his country soon after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, when the country became the fundamentalist and repressive society it is today, Azizian spoke of how Iran had once had the freedom that people enjoy in the UK. Leaving his professional football career behind, he first fled to Canada to join his relatives. On arriving, his false passport was identified and he was forced to live in a rehabilitation hostel and “treated like an animal”. Despite not knowing a word of English, it was football that helped him integrate and learn the language. After just 3 years, Azizian received an unconditional offer to university, but this was later withdrawn when he helped defend a fellow Iranian seeking asylum in Canada.

Arriving in England in 1995, Azizian claimed for asylum, but more than a decade on, he continues one of the UK’s longest fights for asylum against the Home Office. He described the process as “scary” saying: “This is incongruous for modern Britain – I have been discredited in every way from their society.” Despite his struggle, he expressed huge gratitude for the increasing interest of British people who are helping him fight their own government. Azizian blamed the government for the ignorance of those citizens who fail to understand the distinguishing factors between migrants and refugees or asylum seekers. The latter, run for their lives.

Society Executive, Pete Thomas, said the day was a “great opportunity for STAR to reach out to a larger audience given it is still a relatively young society at Warwick”.