Can’t Stay. Can’t Go. Refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned 15 Anwar’s story Anwar is 25 years old. He comes from Somalia and he has been in the UK for six and a half years. Anwar comes from a small fishing village on one of the islands off the east coast of Somalia and he has never had an ID. Anwar has a partner in the UK and they have two small children. He cries as he describes the pain of living in limbo. “I lost my family [in Somalia],” he says. “I came here to be happy, to start my new family, but I’m still struggling. You start a new family, but you are not happy with your new family”. Anwar feels he is a burden to his partner. In desperation, he applied for assisted voluntary return (AVR) to Somalia, but his application was rejected. The Home Office told his MP that there are no assisted returns to Somalia since the country is affected by civil unrest. What makes Anwar’s situation more complicated is the fact that the Home Office believes Anwar to originate from Kenya. However, Anwar states that he has never been to Kenya in his life. The British Red Cross have assisted, and funded, Anwar to approach the Kenyan High Commission to confirm whether he is a Kenyan national. However, the commission refuse to respond unless the Home Office approaches them directly. Anwar desperately wants to put an end to this life in limbo. He is even considering putting in an application for AVR to Kenya, a country he has never set foot in, to try to resolve his current situation. 3.3.3 Other means of support actually a way to just get by. So in my opinion, yes, a lot of them are exploited, but they Working for cash in hand don’t acknowledge it. Yes, so they’re not in Refused asylum seekers, under law, are forbidden a position to ask for more, but in my opinion to work: it is exploitation. (Red Cross staff member, Leicester) It’s forbidden to employ you…. You can’t work. It’s very difficult. If they get me from anywhere My worry is that the people in this group are I work, it’s very bad for you, very bad for the particularly vulnerable to exploitation because owner. (Bisrat, Eritrea) they’re in this predicament where they can’t go forward, can’t go backwards and they are… Red Cross staff reported that some refused if they’re needing accommodation, money to asylum seekers who cannot be returned rely on get by each day then, you know, I dread to friends for money or may resort to illegal working: think what they may be doing and what kind of situations they’re getting pushed or pulled into. Some people maybe work illegally or friends (Red Cross staff member, Leeds) give them money occasionally. (Red Cross staff member, Glasgow 1) Faheem (Palestine) described his experience of working for cash in hand: I think some of them might find odd jobs sometimes that can pay cash in hand just to Sometimes I look for a job. If I get work, I do it. survive. (Red Cross staff member, Leicester) I don’t want to be homeless. I want to be like everyone else. I want to work, to be a good The fact that refused asylum seekers are working person. (Faheem, Palestine) illegally leaves them open to exploitation. However, they might not recognise it as exploitation, since When Faheem does find work, he knows the work they are desperate and only too grateful to have will be physically demanding and badly paid: some money: It helps you out, but they take your blood. I think that a lot of them are exploited in some It will be a hard job, heavy work. Work that of the jobs that they do, because maybe a machine could do, but they don’t want to they’re paid £3 an hour, £2 an hour. But for spend the money. People like me will do a them that’s not seen as exploitation; that’s hard job, and will do it for less money. A job