Refugee Voices
As part of planning for Refugee Week, NEAD worked with individuals who bravely came forward to share publicly their personal stories about asylum in the UK. These will be used in the media and in schools.
- Refugee Voices
- An asylum seeker at the Sangatte refugee camp, France
Gervais
- Age
- 36
- Country of Origin
- Republic of Congo
Gervais fled from his country with his young daughter in 2003 as a result of ongoing civil war. Since 1993, prolonged civil wars in the Republic of Congo have resulted in a great number of deaths and hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. Gervais' father and brother were killed by the coup led by General Sassou although he, his little daughter and mother managed to escape.
Like many asylum seekers and refugees he faced a number of difficulties on arrival in England such as language, culture and social exclusion. In June 2003 Gervais was among the first families dispersed to Norwich as it became one of the National Asylum and Support Service (NASS) dispersal areas.
Soon after arrival Gervais started to support other asylum seekers and refugees through the Red Cross as a volunteer. During the last three years Gervais has helped develop the Refugee Orientation Project and has recently been employed as Service Co-ordinator. Gervais has also got involved in the local community by becoming a lay minister for a local church and a volunteer for the creche at Norwich Prison's Visitors Centre. With support from local organisations Gervais established the Norfolk French Speakers Association (NORFRESA) in 2004. Gervais' daughter has made a great start to life in Norwich. She has settled well into school making lots of friends and is doing very well academically. Like many children from incoming families her English now surpasses her father's!
Humphrey
- Age
- 44
- Country of Origin
- Zimbabwe
Humphrey was born in Zimbabwe in 1961 and as a Tsonga, Ndebele is his first language, although he is also fluent in English and Shona. Humphrey worked as a teacher in Zimbabwe for over twenty years until he left in 2002. He has three children aged 23, 18 and 6 years from his first marriage. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was created in 1999, and Humphrey joined this opposition party in 2000. However, in the same month that he joined, he was beaten up at school, and this affected his wife who had just given birth to their third child, and she died 4 days later of hypertension. Over the following two years Humphrey was again attacked and harassed for his involvement with the MDC and he decided he had to leave through fear of persecution from ZANU-PF (the ruling party led by Robert Mugabe) militias. After a period of time in hiding he was able to travel to England in September 2002, but had to leave his kids behind.
On arrival in the UK he initially stayed with his sister in London. In November 2002 Humphrey moved to Norwich to stay with his brother-in-law. Humphrey applied for asylum for fear of returning and was finally granted Refugee status in 2004 after a long and drawn out battle with the Home Office. He has since been able to carry out part-time care work for the elderly and enroll at UEA on a Master in Arts and Education International course.
Asylum in the UK
The history of refugees in Norfolk has shaped distinctive elements of our local identity.
Local Support Groups