By Ashleigh Gray

Imagine being told you must pack up your belongings and leave for a land you do not know, where you have no relatives and whose army killed your family.

For one woman, this proposition is a reality.

Assist, a Sheffield-based group dedicated to helping asylum seekers, is trying to save a disabled elderly woman from being deported to Ethiopia, a country she has never seen and a country that murdered her family.

Lemlem Hussein Abdu, a 60-year-old Eritrean woman, came to the UK as a domestic servant for a Saudi Arabian family after her own family lost their lives at the hands of Ethiopian forces.

Eritrea was historically ruled by Ethiopia – the root of all of the war and trouble in that country. Civil war led the Ethiopian government to refuse her a passport on the grounds that members of her family had supported a dissident group.

While working for the Saudi family, her UN travel documents – which stated she was Eritrean – expired. The family required her to travel to the UK, so they obtained a passport for her from the Ethiopian embassy, despite the fact she is not Ethiopian.

Richard Chessum, co-ordinator of Assist, described the situation as one of the most difficult the group has yet had to deal with.

“While working in the UK, this lady had a terrible fall and has been disabled ever since,” he said. “The Saudi family decided she was of no further use to them so they simply dumped her and returned home.

“This was 20 years ago and now, as an abandoned and disabled person with nowhere safe to go, she applied for asylum but was refused.”

The Border Agency states that because she has an Ethiopian passport, she is therefore Ethiopian. The Ethiopian embassy admits that, although they don’t want her in the country, they are legally bound to the UK Home Office and cannot refuse.

“Common sense and compassion would tell anyone that this woman ought to be given sanctuary here. This is the only place where she is going to get support,” Mr Chessum said.

“If she goes to Ethiopia, she won’t be able to work because she’s disabled, she can’t even speak the language. She’s never lived there and will face inevitable hostility from people around her.”

Miss Abdu was removed from her Sheffield home and detained in Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire, which sparked a successful campaign from Assist to get a judicial review.

Things began to look up when a Manchester court decided not to pursue her for removal. The court granted an injunction on the flight at the last minute when a document was faxed from Saudi Arabia that proved she was Eritrean, not Ethiopian.

Curiously though, another flight was booked. Her solicitor put in another appeal which was rapidly refused.

“She has since gone into hiding, terrified to seek help or benefits in case she is picked up by the authorities. Nobody knows of her whereabouts,” Mr Chessum said.

The immigration centre told Miss Abdu that she had broken the terms of her release and would be deported. Immigration officers and police recently conducted a dawn raid at the house where she had previously been staying.

Her case exemplifies some of the injustices encountered by organisations such as Assist.

But why are genuine asylum seekers treated in this way?

Pick up a mainstream newspaper and you are likely to find a story about ‘bogus asylum seekers’. Sensationalising exceptional cases and using them to represent a group of people inevitably shapes public opinion.

On Sheffield’s Fargate, 20 randomly selected people were asked what their understanding of the term ‘asylum seeker’ was. Common perceptions were that they were illegally here, bogus, scroungers, troublemakers, stealing British jobs and housing, and accepted too readily into the UK.

Illegal asylum seekers?

Illegal asylum seekers do not exist. Under the 1951 Geneva Convention, anyone has the right to apply for asylum in the UK and they have a legal right to remain until a final decision on their application has been made. There is no legal way to travel to a country with the intent to seek asylum and the authorities expect some to have fake documentation when leaving an oppressively run country.

Stealing jobs and housing?

Asylum seekers are not allowed to work. They may ask for support from the National Asylum Support Service and will typically receive £5.62 per day, or £40.22 per week, an income 30 percent below the poverty line. If asylum seekers do not live in houses provided by organisations such as Assist, they are housed by central government in properties landlords find difficult to let and if they move, their benefits are stopped.

Troublemakers?

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has said in the past that asylum seekers are more likely to be victims of violent crime, even murder, because of who they are.

Accepted too readily?

Less than two percent of the world’s asylum seekers and refugees (those granted right to stay) live in the UK. It is one of the hardest places to be granted the right to stay; most asylum seekers actually live in developing countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Most asylum seekers come from countries like Iran, Iraq, China, Zimbabwe, Eritrea and Somalia. These are countries where serious conflict and human rights abuses are taking place, and the UK is a safer place for them to live.

So why doesn’t the mainstream media report these truths?

Mr Chessum says the fact the British Empire was dissolved by liberation movements is a huge factor and that the media, in some ways, reflects our society.

“You justify an empire by rationalising you are a superior race which always leaves a legacy of racism,” he said. “It goes right through our society and the media want to play to the prejudices of people because that is how they get their circulation. And politicians want to play to those prejudices because that is how they get votes and few people are willing to stand up against the tide.”

With such a backdrop in society that is propagated by the media, Assist has a tough job providing refuge for people like Miss Abdu.

Assist are urging people to stand up for local, genuine asylum seekers when they are in need by writing to their MPs to request support for their cases, and to be aware that these people are not benefit scroungers but have escaped conflict and despotic regimes that we can only read about.