Asylum Link Merseyside

We certainly can’t complain about having nothing to do these days. Another Home Secretary was appointed today and so we’re waiting in a kind of nervous anticipation to see what ‘new’ initiatives wait in store for us. This week we will also learn if the Governments plans for Rwanda are legal.

Since August, the Home Office has started issuing decisions, largely from the fast-track questionnaires for people claiming asylum in 2022, from countries including Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea and Yemen. They later added Sudan, Iran, and Iraq, as asylum seekers from these countries were highly likely to be granted Refugee Status owing to the problems there.

The effects have been startling. Many ALM volunteers have been given Leave to Remain and whilst that is a fabulous outcome, the circumstances are less than ideal. The Home Office has shortened the notice period of a decision from 28 to 7 days. This means that when you get a decision, you have just a week to sort yourself out with a house, benefits or job, and many other things, before you are evicted from your Home Office Accommodation. With a claim for Universal Credit taking 5 or 6 weeks to process, people are left without any form of support. Even more worrying, is the lack of available accommodation and newly granted Refugees find themselves homeless, sleeping rough or sofa surfing. Welcome to Britain!

For our volunteers it is a bittersweet experience. Many have to move away to join friends, family or to get that much prized job. Their country men and women left behind, still wait anxiously for the notification – when will mine come, will it be me? And for the staff, we lose friends and valued colleagues, and much as you’re pleased for people and the new life they have, there’s a tinge sadness about it.

That’s when I turn to the Choir; that buzz of energy and pure joy which only comes through music and singing together! Last week we practiced some Beatles songs for a fundraiser in February – out in the Wild West Kirby at the behest of the Methodist Church there.  We’ll have to learn how to do the brass band bit from Yellow Submarine, which is easier to do than to describe.

Earlier in October we performed at the Liverpool Museum, when the Labour Party Conference was on. We opened an exhibition by the Daily Mirror called ‘People Move’, and it featured Nzuzi, a Choir member for many years.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/inside-mirrors-most-iconic-images-31176100

It’s so exciting, putting all that practice into effect, wondering if everyone will hit their cues, watching the audience reacting and looking at the smiling faces around you. Asylum Seekers hardly ever get a chance to help out. Generally, they’re not permitted to work and many will never be able to volunteer, but in performing with the Choir, they are able to give, of something very fundamental to themselves and in that act, gain dignity and self-respect. If you thought about a world where you were never permitted to help, take part, or share what you had, what a strange place it would be!  So, when someone offers to help, and you’re going to say no, pause for a second before you reply. You may be helping them as much as they are helping you.

Ewan Roberts, Centre Manager, Asylum Link Merseyside