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 Working for cash in hand Refused asylum seekers, under law, are forbidden to work: It’s forbidden to employ you…. You can’t work. It’s very difficult. If they get me from anywhere I work, it’s very bad for you, very bad for the owner. (Bisrat, Eritrea) Red Cross staff reported that some refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned rely on friends for money or may resort to illegal working: Some people maybe work illegally or friends give them money occasionally. (Red Cross staff member, Glasgow 1) I think some of them might find odd jobs sometimes that can pay cash in hand just to survive. (Red Cross staff member, Leicester) The fact that refused asylum seekers are working illegally leaves them open to exploitation. However, they might not recognise it as exploitation, since they are desperate and only too grateful to have some money: I think that a lot of them are exploited in some of the jobs that they do, because maybe they’re paid £3 an hour, £2 an hour. But for them that’s not seen as exploitation; that’s actually a way to just get by. So in my opinion, yes, a lot of them are exploited, but they don’t acknowledge it. Yes, so they’re not in a position to ask for more, but in my opinion it is exploitation. (Red Cross staff member, Leicester) My worry is that the people in this group are particularly vulnerable to exploitation because they’re in this predicament where they can’t go forward, can’t go backwards and they are… if they’re needing accommodation, money to get by each day then, you know, I dread to think what they may be doing and what kind of situations they’re getting pushed or pulled into. (Red Cross staff member, Leeds) Faheem (Palestine) described his experience of working for cash in hand: Sometimes I look for a job. If I get work, I do it. I don’t want to be homeless. I want to be like everyone else. I want to work, to be a good person. (Faheem, Palestine) When Faheem does find work, he knows the work will be physically demanding and badly paid: It helps you out, but they take your blood. It will be a hard job, heavy work. Work that a machine could do, but they don’t want to spend the money. People like me will do a hard job, and will do it for less money. A job