14    Can’t Stay. Can’t Go. Refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned Eleven of the 15 refused asylum seekers are male and four are female. They range in age from 25 to 49 years. They originate from eight different countries and their self-reported countries of origin are listed in Table 2. Table 2: Refused asylum seekers selfreported country of origin Country of origin Refused asylum seekers (n) 3.3 Having money 3.3.1 Receiving support Two of our female participants are on Section 95 support since they have dependent children. Fiyori (Eritrea) has two sons, aged three and two. She has no means of support beyond Section 95 and said: “It is not enough when you have two small children”. She worries about what will happen if her support is stopped. Enaya (Palestine) has a daughter aged five. Two other participants – Dawit (Eritrea) and Kayla (Zimbabwe) – are on Section 4 support. Algeria 2 Eritrea 3 3.3.2 Not on support or support stopped Ethiopia 1 Iraq 2 Palestine 3 Somalia 1 Sudan 1 The remaining 11 participants are not receiving any form of support. Some were on Section 4 in the past, when they had submitted a fresh claim or had applied for assisted voluntary return (AVR). Walid (Algeria) was granted Section 4 support because he had applied for AVR. However, Walid cannot get a travel document from his embassy: Zimbabwe 2 Total 15 All 15 of the refused asylum seekers we interviewed have documentation problems and cannot be returned. Their individual stories (such as that of Anwar, on the next page) contain details of the particular problems each is experiencing. The remaining stories can be found on pages 12 and 28, and in the appendix. 3.2 Coming to the UK Most of our refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned came to the UK because of problems in their country and the need to be, and feel, safe: I didn’t know anything about the UK before I came here; I had no idea. I just knew I wanted to be safe. I wanted a safe life. (Fiyori, Eritrea) The amount of time for which our refused asylum seekers have been in the UK ranged from 18 months to almost 17 years. Five people have been here for more than ten years – two for close to 17 years, two for 13 years and one for 11 years. Only five of the 15 have been here for less than five years. You see I go there twice and they [Algerian embassy] doesn’t want to give me anything…. The [UK] government, they cannot send me back because I don’t have any travel document…. They let me live like – between. I can’t go back and I can’t live here. (Walid, Algeria) Walid’s AVR application expired and his Section 4 was stopped. He has been without support for almost five months: Yes, and they took everything from me. They cut my support; they cut my Azure card, my money…. They cut everything…. I’m without. Nothing. Nothing. No job, no support, nothing, nothing. (Walid, Algeria) Without support, refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned are left destitute: I mean, the ones that we know of, really, in our area, they’re totally destitute. (Red Cross staff member, Teesside) A male participant from Leicester cried as he described how it feels to be destitute: Me, I can say, I can say, I can go one month without to get even 50p. You know, I’m struggling with life…. So it’s affecting me, because I got – I don’t have anything, anything. (Anwar, Somalia)