Can’t Stay. Can’t Go. Refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned 31 So we’ve actually struggled to get that kind of people that we’ve seen like that, they haven’t assistance. When we’ve seen cases over the necessarily seen what the point would be years where we’ve thought, oh, there might because they have possibly been through a be something there, and we’ve talked to local lot of this before, accessing other services in solicitors, they’ve generally been unwilling to other towns even, they’ve been somewhere pursue that as an avenue. (Red Cross staff prior to coming to Leeds. So they’ve become member, Leeds) disillusioned anyway and can’t really see that anything’s going to go anywhere. (Red Cross Seven of our refused asylum seekers are staff member, Leeds) somewhere along the Stateless application process. Anwar (Somalia) is considering a Stateless application, as is Walid (Algeria), but 3.16 What changes would they only as a last resort: “I don’t want to have to like to see? do that. It’s the last thing I was thinking about.” Faheem (Palestine) is working on a Stateless 3.16.1 Refused asylum seekers application. We asked our refused asylum seekers to suggest The Red Cross in Leicester helped send Enaya the main change that would improve their lives (Palestine) and her daughter to the Liverpool Law right now. Clinic. Enaya’s daughter is stateless. In Palestine, only the father can confer nationality on the Getting status child, so Enaya cannot pass her nationality to Six of our refused asylum seekers felt that being her daughter. Enaya’s husband was killed before granted status would improve their lives. Fiyori he registered their daughter. Enaya herself is (Eritrea) believes that getting status will enable her unable to get a passport and has a letter from the to improve her children’s lives: Palestinian mission to that effect. She has told her story to students at the Liverpool Law Clinic twice, I don’t have the papers, so I feel sad all the but nothing has come of it: “I feel like a mouse time. My children are illegals and that feels running in a wheel; getting nowhere.” bad. I have a friend who has the papers. Her children live nicely; her children go to a good Violet (Zimbabwe) submitted a Stateless school and have all they need. If I had the application in March this year. Samir (Algeria) papers, I could work. I could make life better. and his solicitor put in a fresh asylum claim on Every day I feel sad. (Fiyori, Eritrea) the basis of statelessness. The evidence was acknowledged, but the refusal made it clear Being allowed to work that this was the wrong form for making such Four of our refused asylum seekers said an application. Samir will have to make a new specifically that being allowed to work is the application on the correct form if he wants to change they want most: move forward. Being able to work. To have a normal life like Kayla (Zimbabwe) and Joshua (Ethiopia) have had everyone else. To work. To live. I don’t want their Stateless applications refused. money from the Home Office; I don’t want benefits. I want to work. I want to have a family The Leeds staff member reported that refused and a house. I don’t want to just sit here. I asylum seekers become so disillusioned that it is need to be normal. I don’t want to be like difficult to convince them there are options: this – no money, no house, no food. (Qareen, Palestine) I mean, there’s people that we’ve worked with who could potentially have been looking at I was asking the Home Office to just give me statelessness applications that we just can’t permission to work. If they don’t want to give even get past the point of trying to get their me permission to stay, just give me permission documents back from the Home Office…. to work. I go to work. Not like now. I cannot Some of them you can’t even get past the work; I cannot do anything…. If you cannot first hurdle and then they don’t…. Because give me permission to stay, just give me they’re street homeless and they’ve got mental permission to work until I find some solution…. health issues, just trying to get them in to If you give me permission for work, I’m going to access the service to try and work on those work. I pay my rent, I pay for everything. (Samir, things is impossible. For them, some of these Algeria)