Can’t Stay. Can’t Go. Refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned   19 Red Cross also referred him to Nightstop, a charity for the homeless that provides overnight accommodation in the homes of trained and vetted volunteers in the area. It is meant as emergency accommodation though, not for longterm support. Otherwise, Walid sleeps rough: When I was sleeping in the street I was – I want to die really. I don’t want to carry on, because it’s not like – it’s not easy. (Walid, Algeria) Qareen (Palestine) used to live with a friend: My friend used to help me. I lived with him for a year. He is a good man, very good. He was a comfort to me. Now he has married and I can’t live with him anymore. (Qareen, Palestine) Qareen has been moving from place to place and is currently living in accommodation found for him by Positive Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (PAFRAS) in Leeds. It is not a permanent arrangement and he knows he might need to move soon: I don’t know what to do. Tomorrow I can have to go from this house. I can be homeless. I don’t know what to do. Five houses I have lived here in Leeds. Two days here. Three days there. (Qareen, Palestine) 3.5 Having food to eat Four of the participants are on support. Fiyori (Eritrea) is on support, but still finds it a struggle to afford food for herself and her two small children. Fiyori tends to go without so her children can have what they need: I would rather buy food for the children than for myself. So the situation is not good for me. (Fiyori, Eritrea) Those who are not on support rely heavily on such sources as charities, friends and food banks. The Leicester Red Cross refugee service gives people £10 Tesco vouchers that can be used to buy food. It also gives people some food: If they are completely street homeless, we’ve got street homeless food that doesn’t need to be cooked. Then, otherwise, if they have a friend that they’re staying with, we would also give some food parcels to contribute to the friend’s house. (Red Cross staff member, Leicester) The Leicester Red Cross receives a lot of support from the community: So a lot of food is donated from churches. Actually, they’re really, really helpful and really regular in their donations. So we have a church that every Monday brings fruit and vegetables for our service users. Every Monday they’re in here at ten o’clock. Same as the mosque. For Ramadan we received a lot of donations – the dates to break fast or places where the people could go to break fast all together. (Red Cross staff member, Leicester) Anwar (Somalia) gets food from the Leicester Red Cross: “They give me food; they give me some stuff to take for my kid.” Violet (Zimbabwe) and Bisrat (Eritrea) both get food and vouchers from the Leicester Red Cross. Kayla (Zimbabwe) and Bisrat (Eritrea) also get food from the City of Sanctuary Leicester. As Bisrat sleeps rough, he cannot cook food: I buy food where I cook it? I don’t have… I don’t have the cook space. So I eat fast food. I buy fast food. (Bisrat, Eritrea) The Red Cross staff members in Glasgow reported that refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned rely on friends and food banks for food. One of the staff members expressed concern about the quality of food made available by food banks: I think in terms of the quality of that food, people are surviving on low-grade food products and long-life milk and canned fruit and vegetables. (Red Cross staff member, Glasgow 1) According to the Red Cross staff member in Teesside, refused asylum seekers rely heavily on charities for food. Walid (Algeria) will have a meal at the soup kitchen, or sometimes a homeless charity gives him sandwiches and other food. Kasim (Iraq) gets some food from Justice First in Stockton-onTees, but commented: “Sometime you can’t eat. Sometime no afford you eat. You can’t.” The staff member in Birmingham reported that people rely on friends, mosques, churches and SIFA Fireside, a charity for homeless people that provides meals. I mean, if you’re asking me how they survive, I don’t really know. I mean, it’s very difficult I think. There are obviously food banks and stuff out there and soup kitchens, but there’s