"I'm Madly In Anger With You"

A was placed on my week a few days ago when one of our clients from Unity slashed himself in the Home Office in protest (and no doubt frustration) at the length of time his case is taking. It's crazy that people feel they have to do stuff like this to get their point across. I'm beginning to get the impression from things I've read in the news and seen at Unity that the government is more interested in fulfilling their precious stats than the actual human cases, something I also believe is fuelled by the crap put out by the likes of The Daily Mail that portrays asylum seekers as 'spongers wanting to take advantage of British generosity' or whatever their latest bile is.

It drives me mad. The impact of this stuff is devastating for the people involved, case in point up above with the guy who slashed himself. Add to that the ridiculous amount of red tape and bureaucracy people have to jump through in pursuing their asylum cases and cowboy lawyers too lazy to a job properly and out to make a quick buck. Add to the inefficiency of the system - wrong information from one case being added to another wrongly, which can seriously scupper things. For instance, one guy I'm trying to help currently in detention who can't be removed to his country of origin as they refuse to recognise him as a citizen and who won't take him back. He has applied for bail umpteen times, but has been refused on the grounds that he absconded, which he didn't. His case worker also got the sack, and though he's since been given a new one, it appears he's just been left to rot in detention. It's not helped that he also has PTSD due to torture and this is getting worse because he's in detention. The stupidity of it all is beyond belief.

At the same time I do recognise there are opportunistic cases, such as the recent case of two British fascists wanted by the long arm of the law in England, applying to the US for asylum. They did get rejected. I think these situations are in the minority. There are genuine cases on the go where all someone wants is to be safe and get away from the nightmare they face back home. We see them in the centre, with folk frustrated beyond words and bursting into tears. It seems to me that the UKBA persecutes people for the 'cheek' of wanting to live somewhere safe instead of putting up with torture, civil war, the risk of death, violence and sexual abuse on the grounds of ethnicity, gender, politics and/or sexual orientation. It's that simple. People just want to be able to live safely. Yet it's easier said than done.