The way their stories would cross, then diverge, reveals the cruel arbitrariness of the UK asylum system in general, and the government’s controversial one in, one out scheme in particular. Before he left Iran, Aso, 28, had converted from Islam to Christianity, putting his life in imminent danger. The 33-year-old had been politically active against the Iranian government, he says, and “feared being punished by the ministry of intelligence.
I had previously been targeted by the Iranian authorities, shot at with rubber bullets and hit on the back of my head. My house was raided by intelligence officers one day when I wasn’t at home. Relatives contacted me and warned me not to return home.
They took me to another village and, from there – with the help of these relatives, who paid smugglers – I was taken out of Iran and crossed the border to Turkey.” A rubber bullet remains lodged in his genitals. The men made their way separately to northern France. There, their paths converged – but they were still yet to meet.
In January this year, Aso and Baran boarded the same small boat, bound for the UK. Aso says the crossing was “terrifying”. His legs had been hit with a pipe by the smugglers the night before, and he spent eight excruciating hours in the dinghy on his knees.
It is the most frightening thing in the world.” On arrival, they were taken to a detention centre, where they finally met. Aso says he could immediately see that Baran “was a good and kind person, despite the difficult conditions in the detention centre – being locked in our cells for up to 12 hours a day, not knowing what was going to happen to us and feeling terrified of being returned to France. Despite all the stress, Baran was very calm and I always felt comfortable with him.” Their fears about being sent back to France were well founded.
The UK government’s one in, one out scheme was announced last July by then prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and France’s president, Emmanuel Macron. It is being piloted until 1 October, and aims to deter people like Aso and Baran from crossing the Channel in small boats to seek sanctuary in the UK. Since it began, more than a thousand asylum seekers have been selected by the Home Office, apparently at random, to be returned to France.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
