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Refugees welcome? Not this one Refugees welcome? Not this one
(35 minutes later)
Last week, in an article about families offering their spare rooms to asylum seekers, G2 featured on its cover a man called Muhammad Sajjad. The 30-year-old from Pakistan had been staying in the spare room of Yoshiko Stokoe and her partner Jack Palmer and with another couple in Leeds. He had since left their home, having begun to receive an asylum seeker’s allowance of just over £5 a day on a prepaid card, along with a room in a shared house, paid for by the Home Office. He was rying to manage his mental health after a number of suicide attempts and was waiting for his solicitor to put together an application for judicial review challenging a decision from the Home Office in May to refuse him asylum. Last week, in an article about families offering their spare rooms to asylum seekers, G2 featured on its cover a man called Muhammad Sajjad. The 30-year-old from Pakistan had been staying in the spare room of Yoshiko Stokoe and her partner Jack Palmer and with another couple in Leeds. He had since left their home, having begun to receive an asylum seeker’s allowance of just over £5 a day on a prepaid card, along with a room in a shared house, paid for by the Home Office. He was trying to manage his mental health after a number of suicide attempts and was waiting for his solicitor to put together an application for judicial review challenging a decision from the Home Office in May to refuse him asylum.
By coincidence, the day the article was published, Sajjad was arrested and taken to Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre in west London. He has now been told he has no right to stay and will be sent back on 21st September to Pakistan, where he claims to fear for his life.By coincidence, the day the article was published, Sajjad was arrested and taken to Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre in west London. He has now been told he has no right to stay and will be sent back on 21st September to Pakistan, where he claims to fear for his life.
Related: Refugees welcome! Meet the British families who have opened their homes to asylum seekersRelated: Refugees welcome! Meet the British families who have opened their homes to asylum seekers
Stokoe says the Home Office has refused to consider expert evidence from Antislavery International, which said that Sajjad exhibited all the signs of someone who had been trafficked into slavery. The Guardian has seen this evidence, along with a letter from Sajjad’s GP, which says he suffers “long-standing severe and enduring mental health issues” which could not be treated in Pakistan and advises that he is not fit to fly. Stokoe says the Home Office has refused to consider expert evidence from Antislavery International, which said that Sajjad exhibited all the signs of someone who had been trafficked into slavery. Sajjad has also been issued with a letter from his GP, which says that he suffers “long-standing severe and enduring mental health issues” which could not be treated in Pakistan and advises that he is not fit to fly.
Sajjad’s story is complicated, but runs essentially as follows: he says that 13 years ago, his family decided he should leave Pakistan, after being beaten up and left for dead because of his father’s political allegiances. Traffickers charged the family the equivalent of £12,000, promising to get him a chef’s visa, accommodation and medical care so that he could work as a sweet chef in a curry house earning £16,000 a year. But when he arrived in Britain in 2006, he found himself forced into domestic slavery.Sajjad’s story is complicated, but runs essentially as follows: he says that 13 years ago, his family decided he should leave Pakistan, after being beaten up and left for dead because of his father’s political allegiances. Traffickers charged the family the equivalent of £12,000, promising to get him a chef’s visa, accommodation and medical care so that he could work as a sweet chef in a curry house earning £16,000 a year. But when he arrived in Britain in 2006, he found himself forced into domestic slavery.
Sajjad spent six or seven months homeless and destitute before discovering that he could try to claim asylum. The kindness shown to him by Stokoe, Palmer and others in Leeds allowed him to try to get back on track as he got his asylum claim together. “Muhammad dreams of safety and stability in his life; of having a home to welcome people to; of one day opening a restaurant and using his skills as a chef,” said Stokoe. She asks well-wishers to visit keepmuhammadsafe.wordpress.com, the website they have set up, which has suggestions of how to help. Sajjad then spent six or seven months homeless and destitute before discovering that he could try to claim asylum. The kindness shown to him by Stokoe, Palmer and others in Leeds allowed him to try to get back on track as he got his asylum claim together. “Muhammad dreams of safety and stability in his life; of having a home to welcome people to; of one day opening a restaurant and using his skills as a chef,” said Stokoe. She asks well-wishers to visit keepmuhammadsafe.wordpress.com, the website they have set up, which has suggestions of how to help.